The Shadow of Fire
by Dagger of Faith
Summary: A simple café visit takes a dark turn as a new evil descends upon Vale. How will Beacon handle this threat? How can RWBY fight together when they could lose everything at the toss of a match? Watch as Weiss discovers a legacy that reaches far back to the beginning of the Schnee Dust Company. A storm is coming, and the fire that follows will cast a shadow over Vale forever.
1. The Bringer of Destruction

**_The Shadow of Fire_**

**_Chapter 1: The Bringer of Destruction_**

* * *

_**"Welcome to Vale my friends, welcome to your doom."**_

* * *

The group of girls that made up team RWBY of the legendary Beacon Academy, were enjoying their week off from all of the text books, tests, and quizzes, allowing them to finally sit back and relax.

The gang had decided to take a quick stop at their favourite café in Vale, the Shadow of Intent, a simple yet elegant café that was spoken throughout the kingdom of Vale as a 5 star dining establishment, being a half restaurant and half café.

However, on this simple Monday afternoon, the high rating establishment was unusually light on customers. Due to this, the only sounds that were present in the café was the sound of the talk between the four girls, the cooks and waiters that were at the counter, and a large television that adorned the dark purple brick walls of the fine dining café. A news reporter, the intro speaker for Lisa Lavender, was talking about the rise in Dust shipments coming in from Atlas and how it will affect Vale.

The group of girls had a menu placed in the center of the table for each of them to see, pointing out the various items available for lunch.

"How about the Beowulf style hamburger? It comes with eight miniature sandwiches topped with your choice of toppings and various sauces." Yang read off the lunch section. "It sounds pretty good, more than enough for all of us." She added, tapping her finger on a picture of the burger.

Weiss shook her head in disagreement, her own slender finger pointing to the price. "That costs more then we currently have Yang, since you forgot to get my purse before we left when I asked you to grab it. We can order that another time, it does sound good though." Weiss commented, shifting her finger towards another picture. "How about the Nevermore skull soup? It contains various vegetables along with a healthy amount of chicken and it includes free drinks." Weiss finished, gesturing to its price. "And It's cheap."

Blake nodded in approval. "That sounds good to me, although I hope they make it hot. This weather has been bizarre for the past few days, and I need something to warm me up." Blake said with a hopeful voice, her golden eyes looking towards their leader. "Are you feeling okay Ruby?"

Ruby looked towards the Faunus. "Yeah? What?" She asked in a confused tone, her silver orbs darting towards her other teammates who had turned to face the red head.

"You haven't said a word since we arrived. Are you getting sick or something?" Weiss asked in a concerned voice, her own icy blue orbs looking into Ruby's for any sort of clue as to what was bothering the cloaked teen.

"Nope, I was just thinking about the snow that's coming soon." She said and looked out the window. "I can't wait for Christmas." Ruby said with a happy sigh.

"Remind me what Christmas is Blake." Weiss asked her cat-like teammate.

"A holiday based upon the birth of Jesus, a religious figure that is mainly worshipped in Atlas. During the time, upon the 25th of December that is, one would awake to a tree in their house with presents under it, delivered by spiritual man known as Santa Claus." Blake answered, taking a sip of her water bottle, not use to speaking that much at once.

"Ah, that makes sense considering Ruby is from Atlas." Weiss stated, taking off her pair of white winter gloves, placing them on the end of their table.

"Well if it has free stuff then I like it!" Yang called out, enthusiastic as always, waving her fist in the air.

Blake gave a small smile towards her friend. "So have we decided on our order?" She asked the group.

"Well I know Ruby will want a milkshake with a cookie." Weiss said, causing the scythe wielders head to fling to face Weiss. Ruby's silver eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Really!" She chirped, her voice filled with happiness and joy.

Weiss had to smile at that, the young brunette was starting to grow on the ice queen, her overall friendship with her was somewhat progressing for the better. And even with her prim and proper personality, Weiss couldn't help but smile at Ruby's exuberance every now and then.

"As long as you eat all of your soup, then yes you can have it." Weiss said, sounding very similar to the way a mother would care for a child's consumption of sweats.

Yang smiled and looked around. "With that we are ready! MARK! WE'RE READY!" Yang called out in a mix of a scream and a sing-song voice.

A waiter in a black t-shirt and black jeans quickly approached the table. "How are my favorite girls?" He asked, pulling out a note pad. "Ready to order I assume?"

Weiss nodded. "We will have four Nevermore skull soups with four glasses of hot chocolate and one medium... actually large chocolate milk shake with a cookie. That will be it I guess." Weiss told Mark as he wrote down the groups order.

"I assume you want your hot chocolate with a side of milk Miss Blake?" He asked, pointing to the top of his head, trying to gesture to her cat ears.

"Yes Mr. Shadow, that would be great." Blake said with a small smile, her ears twitching a little due to the rise in temperature as the heater roared to life inside the massive café.

Mark Shadow was the co-owner of the Shadow of Intent and, rather than the other owner David Intent, actually socialized with his customers. Ever since the girls fought off a group of robbers from his café, he had become attached to the group.

"You know what," Mark said, putting his pen back in his pocket. "I'll make this meal free because you all are such a great group of people. In the spirit of the holidays." He said, giving the girls a warm smile before heading off into the kitchen.

"Well that was nice of him." Yang said, leaning back in her chair, two of its legs off the floor.

"We do come here a lot so that would explain it. He is such a good person." Blake added to Yang's statement.

"Oh my God." One of the waiters said off behind the counter, starring at the TV across the room. He grasped the remote under the marble counter and turned the volume up, attracting the attention of the girls.

"As of late, several bodies have been found in the course of the past week. Each individual case connects to the next, all involving the use of a high caliber sniper rifle. These murders have been taking place along a multitude of hotels and business's across Vale. If you have any information, please contact the Vale City Police Department." Lisa Lavender spoke before the video cut off into a commercial.

"In one week... Wow, Ozpin needs to do something about this." Yang muttered.

Weiss's eyes flew to Yang. "We have no authority to investigate anything that doesn't directly involve Beacon in any way. Only if the Police Department asked for help or if a Hunter was a victim would we be able to act." The heiress explained to the brawler.

"Don't jinx it Weiss, you could have put us all at risk by saying that!" Yang warned.

Weiss rolled her blue eyes. "There is no such thing as a jinx Yang, just dumb luck." She told the blonde as Mark came over with the soups on a large circular disk.

"Careful, they are hot. Here is the coco, the shake, and here's your milk Blake. Enjoy." Mark said in his cheerful voice before walking back towards his fellow workers.

"Well let's have a toast to Weiss! Who thought of coming here for lunch!" Yang said, holding up her cup.

The group all raised their glasses and knocked them together. "To Weiss!" They all said happily to the slightly embarrassed heiress before beginning to devour their meals.

Ruby finished her soup a few moments later in record time. "Weiss? Can I have my milk shake now? Please?" She asked, showing the heiress the bowl.

* * *

A few streets away upon a three story apartment building stood a well built man in a large gray suit. His left eye was locked shut, not been open in so many years. "Ah! Here we go." The man spoke in a harsh and deep voice. He could easily see his favourite café from up here. That was the only good part about the whole situation.

The man reached the end of the roof and placed a sliver brief case down with a large red rose marked on the top. The man snapped the lock on the front of the case and opened it up. Inside were pieces of equipment, a scope, and a box containing four Dust filled bullets.

Sniper rounds.

As the man began to put the pieces together, he noticed a letter in the pocket of the case. He picked it up with his gray gloves and tore the seal, reaching inside and pulling out four photographs. He knew what they were.

Targets.

He was about to examine the photos to try and spot the sad individuals that he needed to purge from the planet when a cold breeze blew by, sending three of the four images soaring into the sky before he could react.

"Damnit... Well at least I can get some of the job done." He muttered to himself as he attached the scope onto the top of the massive weapon.

A high caliber sniper rifle, freshly polished.

He loading in one of the four bullets and pulled back the lever on the side to chamber the round. He looked at the picture and gave a sad frown.

According the writing on the picture, she is only 15.

She wouldn't be able to have her sweet 16 party, or her first lessons in driving a car, or her first drink once she is 21, or even her first kiss for all he knew.

Oh well. Best not to think about it too much.

The gray suited man looked down into the scope, searching the surrounding buildings until... there she is.

'Found you my little friend. Nothing personal, it's just business.' He thought.

He zoomed in on the scope and held his index finger to the trigger.

* * *

Weiss gave a small smile to her cloaked leader. "Are you hiding any?"

Ruby shook her head quickly, her body jumping with joy as to what awaited her.

"Well okay, here you go." Weiss said and handed the teen the large sugar filled drink.

"Thanks Weiss! You're the best!" She said with a happy smile before putting the straw in her mouth.

A loud "bang" was heard along with the sound a small piece of glass breaking. The group jumped in shock, looking around in all directions.

"What was that?! Ruby, do you see anything that broke?" Weiss asked, looking at the floor for a broken plate or something.

No response.

Weiss looked up at her leader. "Ruby, start looking for someth-" Weiss said before her voice froze in shock.

On Ruby's chest was a two inch hole, blood red as the liquid began to seep out of the wound onto the black fabric of her dress.

"Ruby?" Weiss asked, moving closer to her leader.

Ruby suddenly dropped the milkshake on the table, causing the glass to shatter and its brown liquid to cover the white table and drip onto the floor. Her eyes were open but not moving at all, her face showed no emotion besides the look of confusion, her mouth open slightly.

Ruby brought a shaky hand to the hole, pulling her hand away slowly before looking at it as blood dripped down her slender fingers. Ruby's eyes then rolled to the back of her head and she fell forward into the table, blood flowing slowly out of her mouth.

"RUBY!" Yang called out, rushing around the table as fast as possible, grabbing her sister, trying to see what was wrong with her.

"Mark! Call for help!" Blake yelled before helping Yang lift Ruby on to another table to see the wound.

Weiss could do nothing but sit in absolute shock, time slowing down around her as she realized what just happened.

Ruby had been shot, she had jinxed it.

Weiss snapped out of her daze and looked around the room as employees darted around the room, a few cooks with various weapons that they had bought after the robbery. Weiss looked at the table and saw a sliver object, no bigger than her index finger. She quickly grabbed it and slid it into her skirts back pocket before rushing over towards Ruby.

"Is she okay?!" Weiss yelled at the blonde brawler as she grabbed a first aid kit from Mark, who had just returned from calling the police. The brawler began digging through the bright red box. "Grab a cloth and keep pressure on the wound!" Yang yelled towards Weiss, shoving a plain white cloth into the heiress's hands.

Weiss located the center of the wound and quickly placed the cloth over the bloody area, applying as much pressure as she could without hurting the petite teen.

"Keep pressure on the wound!" Yang commanded as the sound of an ambulance was distantly heard by the young Schnee.

"I'm trying!" Weiss retorted back to the blonde brawler as she pushed harder and harder. 'Come on Ruby, don't you dare leave us!' The heiress thought.

A second shot was heard, causing everyone to dive to the ground as a large oval window shattered, the bullet missing Blake's skull by a few centimeters. Blake turned to face the location of the shot and she could somewhat see the outline of a person on a building.

"I'm going after them!" Blake called out as she ran out of the front doors, sprinting up the side of an apartment building before disappearing on the roof.

"Weiss stay here, she's gonna need back up!" She yelled to the pale girl as the ambulance pulled up into the parking lot.

"But Yang! She's your sister!"

Yang turned to face the heiress. "I trust you with her life Weiss, don't make me regret this." She said and with a wink of her eye, she shot off out the window and into the sky with the aid of Ember Celica.

Paramedics raced into the building as Weiss continued to push down on the wound, her white sleeves were coaxed in blood as the paramedics pulled a gurney up next to the table. The two medics lifted Ruby onto the rolling lift and ran with them out of the building. Weiss could faintly hear Yang yelling in joy while the sound of Ember Celica being fired off was distant in her eardrums. The two men lifted Ruby into the large white vehicle before reaching to shut the door. Weiss slammed her hands on the door in an attempt to keep them open. "I am coming with you." She said in a cold voice, not recalling the last time it had been this cold.

"Ma'am, this is a emergency and we can't just have any..." He trailed off as Weiss starred right into his eyes, her orbs filled with anger. "Get in, I'll need the help." He finally admitted defeat, letting the white haired teen enter the vehicle. The medic slammed the doors shut just as the driver began to speed down the road as the sirens went off.

"Now ma'am, I need you to keep pressure on the wound like you were before, but I am going to inject her with some Dust. It's your job to keep her awake or she could enter a coma." He said and reached for a large needle filled with a blue Dust shard in a liquid form. Weiss pressed her hands down on the wound as the man counted down.

"3, 2, 1, now!" He roared out and jabbed the needle into her wrist.

The effects were not instant and it took a few moments to take effect. Ruby's eyes slowly opened as the new substance filled her body. She blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the light inside the vehicle. Her sliver orbs slowly moved around the room, weakly and painfully until her eyes rested upon Weiss.

"H-hey W-Weiss... W-what are y-you doing?" Ruby asked as her eyesight shifted from the heiress's face to her chest as Weiss pushed down, trying to keep the blood from leaving.

"Shhh... It doesn't matter Ruby, just keep looking at me." Weiss said as gently as possible, causing Ruby's eyes to meet her again. Weiss could feel every sort of emotion exploding inside of her very core, all fighting for control over the Schnee daughter.

"D-did I get shot?" Ruby asked, looking back at the wound that Weiss was pushing on to.

"Ruby! I said look at me." Weiss commanded, once again said as Ruby's eyes meet her own icy orbs. Ruby's own eye lids were closing slightly, her body struggling to keep itself awake. Weiss knew that the Dust was loosing its effect on the smaller girl, she knew that she had to act quick.

"Ruby, don't you dare close your eyes." Weiss said, her blue eyes watering up slightly, this wasn't the Ruby that she was used to; this was a weak and vulnerable girl.

"B-but I'm tired Weiss." Ruby groaned as her blinking slowed down, her sliver orbs growing distant.

The ambulance made a sudden and wide turn, sending medical gear and the medic flying around the interior of the emergency vehicle. Weiss somehow stood her ground, her feet firmly planted on the steel floor of the speeding car.

"No. If you fall asleep then I won't be your friend anymore." The heiress threatened, knowing that she could it go through with that threat.

"B-but... That's n-not fair." Ruby complained.

"I don't care if its fair Ruby, you're not sleeping." Weiss spoke in a harsh voice, hell bent on getting the message into Ruby's cookie filled head.

"Y-you don't m-mean that, do you?" Ruby asked in a heart breaking voice. "E-even if you say t-that I know that y-you're still my f-friend."

"You need to stay awake Ruby, I'm asking you as your friend, not as your teammate." Weiss said, a last ditch effort to keep the complaining girl awake. The ambulance swung into a parking lot, stopping almost instantly, with no warning at all.

Weiss couldn't keep her ground due to the sudden stop, sending her flying towards the wall, slamming her head into a shelf. Luckily for the heiress, her Aura activated just in time for the injury to keep her from getting hurt.

Ruby let out a harsh whimper as the sudden change in pressure on her wound was felt. Blood was now flowing out, the color from Ruby's face was draining.

Weiss tried to get up from her daze, but the ground wouldn't stop moving. The impact had left her without injury but with mild dizziness.

Once the heiress regained her composure and ability to stand, she was greeted with the sight of Ruby being hauled off on the stretcher with two doctors that were awaiting their arrival. The white haired teen bolted out of the medical vehicle to join the group, running along the side of the medical cart. The small group entered the hospital and Weiss soon found a quite large number of nurses and doctors swarming the cart.

"W-Weiss... Don't leave..." Ruby said, grasping Weiss's hand tightly as more and more people ran to the cart.

"I won't, I promise." Weiss spoke in a forced smile, tears slowly reaching her eyes, beginning to fall down her pale cheeks.

"T-thanks Weiss, you're a good friend..." And with that, Ruby's arm went slack.

Before Weiss could even register what just happened, a doctor shoved her out of the way, knocking her on to the cold white floor. Weiss attempted to run after them but as soon as she was standing up, they were all already gone.

Weiss was alone, and she had broken her promise.


	2. Background Information

**The Shadow of Fire**

**Chapter 2: Background information**

* * *

_**"Your Fate has been sealed, this place is her tomb, and you shall soon share it."**_

* * *

Weiss was angry.

After she had been left behind by the horde of doctors, she had been forcefully ejected from the hospital due to "a lack of self control and a potential danger to others" by a police officer.

All she had done was approach the front desk in an attempt to see her critically wounded friend, as anyone would naturally do. However, the miserable human behind the desk had continuously denied any and all access to the operation floors. That's when things began to get ugly.

Weiss, not realizing her actions, found that she had the man backed against the wall with her sword to his neck, according to the officer; her eyes were gleaming with fury.

It hadn't made her day any better when Ozpin sent a message on the scroll to the group. Weiss was the first one to get the message due to her name place in team RWBY. It was a simple, brief message but it only left anger in her already torn and broken heart.

_Miss Weiss Schnee,_

_We were just informed by the hospital and by Mark Shadow about Miss Ruby Rose._

_Due to the circumstances of this attack and the currently unknown fate of Miss Rose, we are calling all RWBY members to Beacon for briefing._

_Although this may be "hurtful," we request that you do not attempt to see your team leader until we have received word or her survival or death. It truly hurts me to say those words but it would only impede your progress if you were to be constantly visiting her._

_She is to remain in complete care of the hospital and any interference from here on out will be taken as A.W.O.L and you will be expelled from Beacon._

_Headmaster Ozpin_

Weiss re-read the message twice before she furiously crushed the device in the palm of her hand, metal and glass piercing her skin. _'How can he dare say that!? What if it was Goodwitch? He'd tare the hospital apart to get to her I know it!'_

Weiss, nearly at her breaking point both mentally and emotionally, stormed her way towards Beacon, contemplating all the different ways that she could murder everyone that wronged her.

"Cardin... Freeze him in an ice prison until he starves." She muttered, kicking a can across the lonesome path that she took. "Ozpin... Death by Dust poisoning. Goodwitch... Riding crop to the neck."

Weiss almost yelled out in anger as she went down the list of people, her hand beginning to become her priority due to its pulsing as blood gently and ever so slowly dripped out on to the snowy path.

_'Snowy?'_The white haired teen thought as she looked up into the sky, finally noticing the snowflakes dancing in the fringed wind. _'Ruby loves the snow... she deserves to be here not me.'_ Weiss mentally beat herself up over the entire ordeal.

"Maybe if I had switched spots with her, or if I just gave her the milkshake first... then she would have gone off to go play a game, not get shot. I deserved that bullet more than she did, for everything I've done to her." She mumbled before coming to a complete stop.

The milkshake... Weiss thought back to the moments before the shot. Weiss could feel time slowing down as Ruby put the straw in her mouth, sucking in on the multi colored tube. Weiss began to take in small details for no reason. How Ruby's eyes sparkled with excitement for the drink, her warm smile, how far the drink made it up the straw before that bullet.

The straw... the liquid never got to her mouth... Weiss never gave Ruby her desert... Instead she had acted in such a way that would prevent her from enjoying the sweet treat.

Weiss didn't know why that bothered her so much_. 'Was it because I broke a promise? Never letting her have the milkshake?'_ She thought as she sat down on a wooden bench along the empty path way.

"I'm such a horrible person..." Weiss muttered under her frosty breath before looking up to the sky. "Jesus... Or whoever it is I'm talking to, I just have one thing to ask. All I want for Christmas is for Ruby to be okay. All I want and all that I ever want is that... Please... Don't take her away from us... Away from me." Weiss made out slowly before beginning to break down into a fit of tears, jamming her head into her palms, ignoring the remains of the scroll still imbedded in her palm. Weiss's tears poured down her pale skin like raindrops from the sky, long and seemingly un-ending.

To anyone passing by they would be able to tell what she was crying over, just the sheer sound of the heiress gave it away. Something had happened to someone she deeply cared about, and she could do nothing about it.

* * *

In a small café, just across the street from the Shadow of Intent, sat a well built man in a rich black suit with a bright red tie down the front. He was outfitted with dark hair, trimmed and swooping to his right hand side. His face was covered in a thin layer of stubble, and his eyes were covered by dark sunglasses. He was relaxing in his chair in the far corner of the café, holding a newspaper up over his lunch.

To any passerby it would look like a newspaper, but if one was to turn it around, it would be reviled as a massive scroll-like data pad with the a massive diamond embedded in the top corner made of pure black Dust. He was flicking his pale fingers across the screen, going through pictures after pictures of unrelated things. A meteor shower near the planet, an earthquake on a costal island, a few minor crimes. The man lifted up a cup of coffee, bringing the brown liquid to his mouth, giving a sigh in relief as his throat was filled with the wonderful drink, the Coffee in Beacon was like ambrosia compared to the coffee in the other kingdoms. He set down his mug and resumed looking at the data.

A massive photo filled the screen labeled "priority #1." He gave a small groan in annoyance, knowing that said message would be an issue that he would have to fix. The black suited man reached forward and tapped the "open" tab under the message, causing a large video to appear on his scroll.

It was an image of a young girl, probably around her 17-18 years, with long and seemingly perfect white hair with a small tiara resting upon her head of neatly kept hair. She was sitting on a small bench in a park, her shoulders beginning to become covered in snow, creating a camouflage look upon the small crying teen.

"Hmmm..." He hummed as he tapped the live camera feed, a large chunk of text appearing next to her image. "A Schnee... Crying? That's a surprise." He muttered under his breath as he folded up the paper, at the same time compacting the unseen scroll and letting it retract into his sleeve. He then proceeded to crumble the newspaper up into a small ball before tossing it across the room into a small garbage bin.

"Score." He spoke in his deep voice, allowing a small grin to reach his lips. He reached down to grab his coffee mug, about to finish the tasty drink off when he heard an angry cough from behind him. He turned around slowly, sipping the coffee normally as he examined the four boys that were now in his pathway of exit.

The three surrounding the fourth were all very scrawny and wore a combination of minor armor additions along with a winter coat, while the fourth wore a large set of silver and gold plated combat armor, a large golden bird shined brightly upon his chest piece, obviously the leader of the pack.

"Can I help you boys?" He asked in a calm and relaxed tone, despite the fact that these boys currently had their weapons hooked neatly to their belts, a swift movement of the hand and he would be at their mercy.

"Yeah gramps, how 'bout you get out of our spot." The leader said in a harsh tone, all friendliness seemingly absent from his entire existence.

"Well, I am sorry to be a bother; I was just leaving actually and have quite a lot of chores to do." The black suited man spoke back in a friendly voice as he picked up his cane from the side of his chair.

The armored boy smacked the cane out of his hands, sending the tool across the room, sliding to a stop upon the far wall.

"No you aren't, you're going to pay for taking our spot. Cardin here has this table reserved." One of the teens with green-ish hair stated, giving a cocky grin to the older man.

"So, Cardin was it? It was just a simple misunderstanding; we really don't need to make this a big ordeal. Now if you will excuse me I need to really get goi-"

"You're not going anywhere." Cardin spoke out, cutting the man off as he shoved him into the table, sending his coffee mug in the air and onto the floor, shattering upon impact.

"That wasn't a very nice thing for a Hunter in training to be doing." The suited man said, his voice turning dark as he stood up slowly. His dark hair was shimmering with a mild black Aura while his eyes became completely golden. Not just the pupils, the entire eye.

Cardin stood his ground as his team stepped back at the Aura he was emitting, while mild, it was clearly very powerful. "What's with the eyes, freak show? That's some pretty weird stuff." Cardin said and began laughing at his own joke, his teammates completely silent.

"You'll see soon enough Mr. Cardin." The older man spoke as he slowly raised his hand up. Instead of punching or slapping Cardin, he simply snapped fingers, creating a unusually loud snapping noise.

Cardin laughed again and clenched his right hand into a fist, thrusting it forward toward the man's face. Just centimeters before contact, Cardin's entire body froze instantly, the fist stopping in mid-punch.

"What the fu-"

"AH! Language." The man warned as he snapped his fingers again, causing Cardin's pants to fall to the floor, revealing a set of white boxers with pink hearts.

"How... What are you?" Cardin groaned as his teammates began panicking, slowly stepping back further and further from the Aura using man.

"It's Orion, Mr. Cardin. You boys are all from Beacon I assume? How about a one way trip huh?" Orion suggested as he snapped his fingers again, causing the group of boys to disappear from the café into thin air.

He gave a small smile in relief and opened his wallet up, pulling out a 500 Lien bill. He placed it on his table and walked over to the wall where his silver and black cane was resting upon the white marble floor.

"You can keep the change." He called out towards the waiter that had been coming towards his table with the bill. "It was truly a great drink." He said as he made his way to the exit. Once he reached the front doorway, he tapped the bottom of his cane on the floor three times before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

* * *

Weiss could not stop crying.

The young heiress sat alone on the wooden bench, alone in the park, alone in her own torn apart world.

"She... She... *sniffle* didn't... D-Deserve... This..." Weiss groaned as her tears pelted the soft snow below her body like mortar fire. She personally wouldn't be surprised if her tears froze on her face, but she knew she wouldn't care, all she cared about was her friend, possibly lying dead on some sterile hospital bed.

"I'm... I'm sorry Ruby... I'm a worthless teammate..." She moaned and slammed her right hand in a fist onto the bench, cracking a few bits of wood.

"Now now, that wasn't very kind to the poor bench now was it?" A deep voice asked her, the sound only a few feet away. The young heiress slowly turned her head towards the sudden noise, used to only the silence of the park and seeing a man in dark clothes standing in front of her.

"W-what do you want." Weiss groaned as she gave yet another sniffle, her eyes were bright red from crying, and trying to hide her chaotic emotions.

Orion approached the bench, sitting down next to the crying girl. "Shhh... It's all right. My name's Orion, yours?" He asked, his voice kind yet filled with concern.

"Weiss..." She mumbled, attempting to wipe the tears from her eyes when she realized the remains of her scroll were still embedded in her palm.

Orion took hold of her injured hand. "Ouch, that must hurt. Please, allow me." He said calmly and closed his eyes, a golden Aura leaving his fingertips, moving into Weiss's arm. Suddenly, the shrapnel began to painlessly vibrate and move upward out of her skin, defying gravity. Once all the pieces were out of her skin, they folded into thin air in front of the Schnee daughter.

"H-how... *sniffle* did you do that?" She asked, a few tears still slowly falling down into the snow.

Orion didn't respond. Instead, he ran his index finger around Weiss's palm, his fingertip glowing a purple Aura, her cuts slowly healing themselves in seconds, something that would have taken weeks by her own immune and cellular systems to do.

Orion let go of her hand and Weiss moved it up to her eyes, wiping the tears away, finally able to look directly at Orion. "Thank you sir."

"Please my dear, it's Orion, sir sounds too formal, even for my status in life." He replied in a relaxed tone, sending her a warm smile. "Now, what seems to be the problem?"

"Well, it all started this afternoon..." Weiss started slowly explaining the events of the day since they arrived in the cafe, ordering their meal, the sudden gunshot, Ruby's injury, getting her to the hospital, being forced to leave, and the message from Ozpin. Orion simply sat next to her, never interrupting, letting her explain at her own pace.

"And that's how I got here. Then I met you and here we are." Weiss said, gesturing to the snowy ground with a sad expression on her face.

"Wow, is this Ruby girl important to you?" Orion asked, tilting his head to the side in a questioning manner.

"W-what do you mean? I mean, she's my leader and all so I do care about her in that form."

"Weiss," Orion began, gently resting his hand on her shoulder with a soft, kind expression. "You know what I mean. Don't answer it, just ask it to yourself. How much do I care about her? Just that." He said and gave another warm smile that could melt the snow. "Now, who is this Ozpin character you were talking about?"

"My headmaster at Beacon, he wants us to stay awa-"

"Ah! Do you have a phone on hand with his number?" He asked, putting his right palm out towards her.

Weiss gave a small nod. "Yes, but why do you wan-"

"All in good time. Just let me talk to him." He said, giving her a small wink.

Weiss extended her own hand outward, pressing the silver phone that she retrieved from her pocket into his hand. It was a different model to her Scroll, and she only used it in emergencies considering it was her personal phone. Orion weighed the new object in his own palm. "Huh, lighter then I would imagine." He muttered before turning it on.

He was greeted to the sight of a large white snowflake on a black background with the name "Schnee" under the massive icy object. A small display appeared on the screen with the title: Password.

"Password?" Orion asked, shaking the phone in her direction.

Weiss's cheeks turned a rosy color. "It is um... Okay, an R."

"Yeah." Orion replied, pressing a key down on the pad below the screen, a large "R" now appearing by the snowflake.

The two continued like this for a few moments more, Weiss spelling out the password and Orion entering the characters. Once they had finished, Orion looked down at the glowing screen of the phone.

He grinned slightly as the letters connected at last.

"R-U-B-Y_S-C-H-N-E-E, huh, now who could that be?" He asked teasingly, looking towards Weiss who at this time, seemed to be on fire with her blushing.

"S-shut up." Was all Weiss could make out, curling up into a ball on the bench.

Orion scrolled through the contacts of the device, eventually spotting the name he was searching for. Orion pressed down on the green phone button to the side of the phone and the phone began humming softly, confirming that the call offer was being sent. He pressed his thumb on the "speaker" option and placed the silver phone next to Weiss on the bench.

_"Weiss Schnee. Where have you been?" An angry voice asked out on the other end of the line. "Miss Blake and Miss Yang have arrived already and you haven't been answering your scroll. You have exactly 10 minutes to get to my office or I will not hesitate to expel-"_

"Hey Ozpin, how are you?" Orion said to the phone, his voice filled with amusement and friendliness.

"_O-Orion? I mean Mr. Orion, w-what are you doing with Weiss's phone, sir?" Ozpin asked over the line, clearly in sudden disorder, close to freaking out._

"Oh it's 'Mr Orion' and 'Sir' is it? Thought I told you before it's just Orion. And no 'hello'? No 'What's up'? I'm hurt...Anyway, did you say anything...upsetting to anyone today?" He asked innocently.

_"W-well, I did have a rather horrible conversation with the remaining members of RWBY, b-but I had to Mr. Orion, you see, its ou-"_

"Abababa! Ozpin, I'm calling in a favor. I'll be taking Miss Snowflake over here under my wing for a little while; I trust it won't be an issue, will it?"

The sound of papers moving around and a loud crash was heard over the phone.

_"N-not at all! I-I... Need to get going. G-good day Mr. Orion."_

"Take care Ozpin, and it's JUST ORION!" Orion laughed before clicking the off button on the device.

Orion tossed the phone to Weiss, who nearly dropped it in sudden shock, expecting him to have just handed her the device.

"Well, that's over with." Orion said cheerfully, sending the confused girl a warm smile. "Now, why don't we go for a little walk through the city? It will take your mind off things and I'm buying at any shop." He offered the small Schnee, putting out his right hand for her to take.

Weiss pocketed the silver cell phone and slowly took Orion's hand. She let out a surprised squeak as he yanked her up with a large amount of force. One she had regained her composure; she looked up to meet his face. "Why are you being so nice to me? I've never done anything for you, so why help me?" She asked in a confused voice, half wanting him to spill the secret. No one helps a Schnee just for the fun of it or to be nice, it was for money, power, fame, autographs, cars, Dust, she could go on and on.

"Well someone needs to keep you busy for three and a half hours until Ruby is out of surgery." He said and sent her a warm smile.

Weiss tilted her head to the side in a questioning manner. "How do you know that? No one could possibly know that…" She mumbled just loud enough for him to hear.

"My dear Weiss, I know everything. I'm not using the expression, I literally know everything." He spoke in his trademark "nice-guy" voice.

"H-how-" Weiss began stuttering but was cut off almost instantly as Orion teleported out of sight. The mysterious man reappeared directly behind Weiss, covering her eyes with his hands.

"There's a term people use for beings like me." He said and disappeared again, appearing at Weiss's left side. "I don't see why though because it doesn't truly describe me as a whole." He continued before once again disappearing, finally stopping in-front of Weiss. "The best was to describe me is one word. God." He said simply, flashing a confident smile.

Weiss took a small step back, nearly tripping over a chunk of snow. "A-A God?" She stuttered, blinking a few times quickly to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

Orion simply smiled and shook his right hand around in the air in-front of him, flicking his wrist forward. Almost immediately, a large silver and white purse appeared, resting in the palm of his hand. "Yours I assume?" He asked before holding his hand out farther for her to grasp.

The Heiress slowly leaned forward and took hold of her bag. "T-Thank you…" She muttered, her brain malfunctioning due to the seemingly impossible events that were now taking place before her very eyes. "B-But if you're a God, then why waste your time with someone like me?" She asked in a quiet voice, the feeling of guilt washing over her very being as she recalled all the horrible things that she had done in her short lifetime.

"Cause in all my centuries of existence, I haven't seen anyone so sad before, especially a Schnee none the less." He said in a worried tone, taking a short step towards her. "The fact is someone is screwing with fate, fate that should be allowed to grow and continue as nature intended. And I can't let that happen. I am in charge of protecting fate, so when I see something that is tampering with Fate, I tend to put a stop to it as soon as possible, by whatever means are necessary."

Weiss thought for a minute, taking the Gods words to heart. "Are you saying that Ruby wasn't supposed to be shot?" She asked, the gears slowly aligning in her selfish brain.

"Yeah, something like that. I mean, one of you gets shot later on, but nothing life threatening. I'm surprised that someone found a way to bypass Fate so easily but… No, it can't be him…" Orion trailed off, looking down towards the snowy ground, deep in thought.

Weiss tilted her head slightly to the right, her icy blue orbs sparkling with wonder and confusion. "You... you know who shot Ruby?" She asked slowly, not really sure how the God would react.

"Well... I have an idea of who it could be." He said slowly, looking back up to look directly at the young Schnee.

"Well? Who is it? Why don't we go get them and make them pay?!" Weiss nearly shouted, her voice peaking to a slightly higher squeak as he ended her statement.

"There's a few problems with that my dear," Orion began, waving his left hand around, generating a rich dark brown lounge chair before sitting down in it. "I don't take direct action often; anything I physically do on this realm of existence can have a massive effect on others. Also, I hate writing reports to father about my actions here, I'm not much for writing." He said, creating a glass of cola in a clear glass in his hand, taking a quick sip of the liquid.

"But, you just did... that." Weiss said gesturing to the new materials that Orion had spawned; a flabbergasted expression adorned her pale face.

"Did it kill anyone? Did it harm any Grimm? No, it's too minor to do anything serious." He explained, crossing his left leg over his right. "The man I think shot Ruby is named Saturn, aka Anubis. A truly nasty piece of work, and that's saying something coming from a god. Kills for fun, money, power, all that... He tends to use a sniper rifle, so that pretty much points to him already, plus from what you've told me the method is just his style." Orion told the young girl before taking yet another sip. "I met him once; he had killed a leader of a Faunus civil rights riot that was supposed to build a treaty between your two peoples on this planet. Saturn bypassed my planed Fate and destiny and I had to take action. We had a battle; he managed to escape with a blow to the eye."

"Well where is he so I can deal with him, he's scum." Weiss told the God, her hands right in into fists as she finally had someone to blame for these events.

"He has hidden from my sight, disappeared in a sense. He is a very powerful man Weiss... He plays for keeps and doesn't take prisoners. It would also take all four of you and then some to take Saturn down, let alone his army that he has built up. He has some powerful allies in the White Fang."

"The White Fang..." Weiss thought, suddenly recalling hearing about someone named Anubis while putting her ear to her father's door when she was just a kid.

* * *

A man in a dark grey suit sat down upon the edge of a large construction crane a few hundred feet in the air, finally catching his breath. "Damn Huntresses." He muttered before he felt the vibration of his phone. He pulled the black and grey device out of his back pocket and accepted the call.

"Yes?"

"Anubis, report."

"One target down, unconfirmed kill."

"And the rest?" The voice on the other end of the line hissed.

"Escaped, I was attacked by two but I fled the scene before they could catch me."

"Dammit Anubis! I want them eliminated! Start living up to your name and make sure they are dead!"

"Hey, I volunteered to do this, I could have sent the silencers but I decided to take direct action."

"Yet they still live don't they? Get it done Anubis, or it will be your face in a photo." The voice replied coldly as the line went dead.

* * *

**A/N: Hey everyone, thanks for reading Chapter 2. I would really love any reviews on this story, it really makes my day and encourages me to write more. If i get more support i will update more often. Thanks to all of you and my very good friend Orion Matrix, go check out his story. Bye!**


	3. Complications

**The Shadow of Fire**

Chapter 3: Complications

* * *

**_"You have two choices! Save her or save your own flesh and blood!"_**

* * *

Weiss wasn't in a very good mood.

Despite all the new information that Orion had given her, including a name that she could blame this entire situation on, she couldn't suppress the feelings that were bubbling in a magma like state inside of her soul. She knew that if she found this Saturn character that she would impale him with Myrtenaster over and over.

The sad thing was that she didn't know if she would be able to stop.

"Weiss?" Orion asked shaking a hand frantically in front of her direct line of eyesight, a look of concern adorned his face.

"Huh? What did you say?" Weiss asked, realizing that she must have zoned out of their conversation.

"I said, do you want to do a little bit of looking around at this store?" Orion asked, gesturing to his right hand side.

The young heiress spun on her heels to face the building Orion was speaking off. A flood of recent memories enveloped her mind as she recalled what they were last doing. Orion had suggested that they spend some time looking around at the street shops in downtown Vale until Ruby is out of surgery, which, according to Orion, was in a few hours.

The bright orange and blue building was of considerable size, about the size of 10 Beacon dorm rooms. A large neon sign hung above its main doors, its lights off but still giving away its name.

The Battle Wardrobe.

"The Battle Wardrobe... Why are we here again?" Weiss asked as Orion walked slowly towards the building.

"Eh? Oh, you need some gear for later. Some... Interesting events happen at the hospital." He said and held the wooden door open for the young heiress.

Weiss walked in with Orion following suit. "Then why won't you just tell me what to do and what happens?" She asked as they began to take in the new surroundings.

"A great magician never tells all of his secrets at once my dear. All in good time." He said and walked over to a rack of cloaks. "Grab a basket." He commanded as he slid hangers around, trying to locate the perfect cloak on the rack.

"I am a Schnee, I don't retrieve simple things such as that." She commented, crossing her arms over her chest in a defiant manner.

"Then I guess you don't want to know about Ruby's health." He call out to her, not bothering to turn around to face her.

Weiss gave a huff in defeat and sauntered over to the baskets with a look of determination on her face. If Orion was kidding, she would kill the God. Weiss maneuvered herself to Orion and shoved the basket in to his hands. "Tell me now." She spoke in a threading voice.

"Easy easy. No need to get all dramatic." He told the aggressive teen. "My dear, what is the number one result of mixing Dust and applying it to your body?" He asked innocently as he grabbed a pitch black cloak from the shelf. "This is nice."

Weiss thought for a second, the question catching her off guard. "Death." She replied to the God.

"Other one." Orion said, placing the cloak in the basket.

"Depends on the type of Dust."

"Purple, Red, and Green." He said, placing another black cloak in the basket.

"That would be... Spontaneous growth of external limbs and/or change in eye appearance... Why?" Weiss asked, adjusting her tiara on her mound of platinum blonde hair.

"Just wondering." Orion replied with a sly smile as he walked over to a rack of ribbons and bows that adorned the wall. "What's Ruby's favorite color again?"

"Red or black... Orion, explain yourself." Weiss demanded, stomping towards him, firmly grasping his shoulder.

Orion gave a small laughed and suddenly Weiss's hand unclenched his shoulder, the heiress losing all control over the limb, dropping lifelessly to her side. "How dare-"

"Tsk tsk, Miss Schnee. Don't be rude." He replied and plucked a red ribbon off the wall, also snatching a red bow as well, disposing of them momentarily in the basket. "As I said before, I'll tell my secrets in good time."

Weiss gave a huff of anger. "Ugh! For a God you can be very annoying." She retorted and began storming off towards the display of swords mounted on the wall.

Orion suddenly tensed, turning around at an un-imaginable speed. "Weiss! STOP!" He called out, his voice flooded with warnings of danger.

Weiss stopped and spun to face the God on the heel of her white and blue boots. "What do you wan-" Weiss began a counter to the Gods words but was interrupted by the sound of a large object landing on the floor behind her.

The young heiress turned to face the source of the sound, and was greeted with the reflection of light on a massive long sword that once hung up above on the ceiling. It was firmly speared into the blue tiled floor where Weiss, mathematically, would have been had she not stopped.

"You were suppose to die right there Weiss." Orion said in a dark tone.

Weiss turned once more to face the God, his words leaving a chilling frost on her heart. "W-what do you mean?"

"I prolonged your death Weiss. You were Fated to die right then but I intervened. I... I wasn't meant to stop you..." He said sadly, barely meeting her fazed look. "I am going to get in a lot of trouble for that." He said and walked over to Weiss, looking down at the younger girl. "That is why you don't want to piss off a God, so be a dear and watch your tongue." Orion warned and yanked the long sword out of the ground, leaning it against a shelf of clothing before proceeding deeper into the store.

Weiss stood alone in utter shock, blinking a few times as she took his words into deep consideration. She had been a brat, and he had ignored that and save her life. The question was why.

Weiss ran after her savior, passing through isle after isle of clothing and assorted combat skirts and uniforms. Weiss eventually caught up to the mysterious God, coming to a stop while he browsed the racks of clothing.

"Orion."

"Hmm? Yes?" Orion replied, putting a few random clothing apparel into his basket.

"Why... Why did you do it?" The young heiress asked.

"You will need to be more specific, I don't understand the question." He replied ever so calmly, shaking his head at the prices of the uniforms.

"Save me." Weiss stated simply. "Why did you do it."

"My dear girl," Orion began and turned to the younger Schnee heiress. "You will do great things in your lifetime... Most people need to be alive in order to physically do something." He answered with a warm smile. "And... I would consider you a... Friend. I would be damned before I let a friend get killed."

Weiss stood speechless, her icy orbs quietly filling with tears. Weiss was still very new to the whole "friend" concept and at any chance that she got to be a friend of someone, she tried to take it. She needed more people to care about, not just her family. Ruby was the first friend she ever had, but she came off as a bitch to the younger girl. Weiss wouldn't make that mistake ever again.

"T-thank you mister Orion." She said quickly, her voice cracking into a high pitch squeak sound towards the end of her sentence.

"No problem." Orion said softly, grinning like a maniac. "Here, since I broke one rule, why not break some more? How does skipping forward in time and going to see Ruby sound?" He asked casually.

Weiss flinched slightly. "Wait? You can do that?" She asked.

"Weiss, I'm a God, I can do anything."

And to that, Orion snapped his fingers together and the world around Weiss became silent, the air becoming colder and harder to breath.

"O-Orion... What's happening?" Weiss asked, knowing the answer already but needing him to confirm it so she could tell that she wasn't crazy.

"Speeding up time. Duh." Orion told the Schnee before snapping his fingers again, causing all the anomalies to cease their attack.

"Attention shoppers! We will be closing in 10 minutes. Please exit the building at your earliest convenience." A female voice spoke out over the loudspeaker above the odd duo.

"That's our call. Come on Weiss, let's get going." Orion said before grabbing the Schnee daughters hand and pulling her along the isles towards the front desk.

* * *

Saturn collapsed down in his brass and golden throne, giving out a sigh of relief as he hadn't sat down properly in hours. "Ah! That's much better." He spoke out to no one in particular.

"Sir! You asked for the Silencers?" A cold voice asked towards Saturn, a group of four approaching the older man.

Saturn held out a palm in their direction, gesturing them to cease their approach towards his person. "Ah yes, I'm... glad to see all of you. I have a mission for you in order to complete a very important task. I need you four to steal a shipment of Dust from the docks, my client needs something to run his experiments in order for us to continue to work with him. I have my own work to do and I need people I trust working on this." He explained to the team of lackeys, grabbing a glass of wine next to him.

"And the price?"

"A blank check made out to you four and the White Fang. You will both be generously rewarded." He said in a very calm tone, unusually calm in fact.

"We accept. The Silencers of the White Fang are at your command." The leader replied, bowing his head towards Saturn.

"You have several ships and squads of men at your disposal... do not mess this up." Saturn warned, taking a sip from his glass. "Now get to it."

* * *

The hospital was a disaster.

Weiss and Orion had made their way to the hospital, attempted to get up to the room number that Orion had told her Ruby would be in, gotten told she wasn't available by a nurse, snuck up an elevator, and made it to her floor. All in less than 15 minutes.

'Just my day.' Weiss thought as they proceeded down the narrow white hallway, passing a multitude of rooms and medical storage closets.

"Here we are." Orion said, gesturing to a large wooden door along the right side of the hallway. The young heiress bolted for the doorway, the brass handle just within reach. As she grasped hold of it she felt it turn from the other side and she jumped back in shock, moving far from the door.

An older man with a long white beard exited the room, closing the door behind him before examining the duo. He adjusted his glasses over his eyes before speaking. "Erm... How may I help you?" He asked, his voice was dry and rushed, as if he hadn't drank anything in several hours.

"Is Ruby in there?" Weiss asked the doctor, her eyes sparkling with anticipation and worry.

"Miss Rose? Ah, yes she is. Are you two friends or family?" He asked, adjusting his lab coat.

"Family, I am her uncle." Orion lied, moving towards the doctor.

"Ah, very well! You may enter her room but I need to warn you both or something."

"Hmm?" Weiss asked, tilting her head in a questioning manner. "Don't tell me won't be able to stay at Beacon!" She randomly yells out at the doctor.

"What? No, nothing like that. There was a little... Side effect with our Dust equipment... We have no idea how long the effects will last." He said slowly.

"I don't care, let me in." Weiss demanded, stalking closer and closer to the elderly man.

"Be my guest, but don't say I didn't warn you." He said, moving out of the heiress path, allowing her access to the younger teen's room.

Weiss ran into Ruby's room and slammed the door behind her, locking it shut. Weiss could care less about anyone else, she need to see Ruby alone. Once she was certain that the door was properly shut, she gave out a sigh in relief.

"Whatcha doing?" A small voice asked out to Weiss, the voice ringing a bell in Weiss's clouded mind. The young heiress turned so quick to the new sound, she could have gotten whiplash.

There she was, Ruby Rose, sitting on a large black bed. She had a large white bandage around her chest and one around the top of her head. She was still in her combat outfit, clearly changed into it after surgery due to all the ruffles and folded parts that were present on the attire.

"Hey Weiss. Did I miss anything?" She asked in a calm voice, sending Weiss a warm smile.

"N-no, you didn't miss much... Hey..." Weiss began but caught sight of something moving behind Ruby's back. "What was that?"

Ruby began to stiffen up. "I-it's nothing!" Ruby called out in a rushed tone, the object behind her moving faster now.

"Ruby! What in Orion's name is that?" Weiss yelled out, storming towards Ruby.

A look of confusion as to what Weiss just said adorned the younger girls face. "Weiss..." Ruby warned.

"I'm going to see what you're hiding, right no-" Weiss began but was cut off as she spotted the strange object, finally stopping in mid air for her to see.

It was a long and large wire of some sort, black points poking out of it. No... Not points, fur.

'Wait... Fur?' Weiss though as she gave it another look over, blinking a few times to make sure she was seeing it right.

It was "growing" out from Ruby's lower back outward, black for the most part but turning a shade of red as it approached the tip that was hanging in the air by itself. The same red that was present in Ruby's hair color.

Weiss came to a shocking conclusion as she remembered Orion's words at the clothing store.

_"__**Easy easy. No need to get all dramatic." He told the aggressive teen. "My dear, what is the number one result of mixing Dust and applying it to your body?" He asked innocently as he grabbed a pitch black cloak from the shelf. "This is nice."**___

_**Weiss thought for a second, the question catching her off guard. "Death." She replied to the God.**___

_**"Other one." Orion said, placing the cloak in the basket.**___

_**"Depends on the type of Dust."**___

_**"Purple, Red, and Green." He said, placing another black cloak in the basket.**___

_**"That would be... Spontaneous growth of external limbs and/or change in eye appearance... Why?" Weiss asked, adjusting her tiara on her mound of platinum blonde hair.**___

_**"Just wondering."**__  
_  
It wasn't a wire... It was a tail.

"Ruby?" Weiss asked, reaching out to touch the strange appendage that now was attached to her leaders body. She grasped hold of it and could finally feel its texture.

Extremely soft...

"Yeah... That's not the only thing..." Ruby said sadly, gesturing to her bandages over her head.

Weiss glanced up to the girls head and noticed a small movement under the white covering. Weiss let go of the tail and began unraveling the bandages, ignoring Ruby's yelps for the heiress to stop.

As Weiss yanked off the last of the covering a pair of wolf-like ears popped up in attention, flickering around at the change in surrounding. They were black and towards the tip, like the tail, turned red in color.

"Ruby... You're... You... But... You have wolf ears?" Weiss asked, baffled by what she was seeing.

"Yeah..." Ruby said slowly, looking down at the floor before looking into the heiress eyes. Weiss's vision turned to Ruby and her own orbs widened. Ruby's silver eyes now had a small slant to them, giving a wolf and cat-like look to the girl. Along with this was a single pointy tooth that poked slightly out of the teen's mouth, a very sharp looking white tooth.

"The Dust... You're a Faunus?!"


	4. Puppy!

**The Shadow of Fire**

Chapter 4: Puppy!

* * *

******"You know exactly what I want, and I won't be convinced otherwise."**

* * *

"Yes I know! Please stop overreacting!" Ruby groaned at her panicking teammate, rolling her silver eyes.

Weiss's right eye kept twitching, because as Ruby would speak, her tail would flicker around, her ears would move around, and her pointy teeth would become visible to the outside world.

"You're a Faunus..."

"Yeah..." Ruby said slowly, tilting her head. "You said that already..."

"You... How... You're a Faunus?"

"Weiss! I get it! I'm a hybrid animal-person. I GET IT!" Ruby exclaimed, her eyes slowly watering up. She had already been treated like an outsider due to her age, but with this... Cardin and his group would never leave her alone.

Weiss blinked a few times before quickly shaking her head, her platinum blonde hair rotating around quickly. "NO! No no no, that's not what I meant at all Ruby." Weiss said quickly, giving Ruby an extremely awkward hug. "I didn't mean that at all, you just misinterpreted me."

Ruby tried to blink back the tears that plagued her orbs of sight, failing miserably. Ruby suddenly began sobbing uncontrollably, the tears flowing out of her eyes like a fountain as she let out the most painful sounds of fear and sadness.

"Shhh..." Weiss said quietly, a pitiful attempt at trying to comfort the petit teen. Weiss rubbed Ruby's arms gently, trying her best to give a calm environment to Ruby. The young heiress thought for a few seconds before reaching for Ruby's ears.

The Schnee daughter attempted this action after recalling a conversation that she witnessed between her other two teammates, Blake and Yang.

* * *

"Kitty cat."

"Shut up Yang." Blake retorted, flipping a page in her novel, attempting to ignore the brawler and catch up on some much needed reading.

"Meow for me."

"No."

"Don't make this end in a "cat-astrophe" Blakey!" Yang joked, grabbing both of Blake's ears, causing the Faunus to freeze, instantly all anger subsiding from the Faunus teen.

"Blakey, be nice."

Blake started letting out meows in enjoyment, the feeling of Yang's fingers on her ears stimulated her body with warmth and comfort, making her feel safe. Yang saw that Blake had finally calmed her anger and slowly began to move her hands away from the cat ears.

Blake's own hands flung up to grasp hold of Yang's flinging the book across the room in the process. "No! Keep them there!" Blake hissed, the look of need and excitement was glowing from her Aura.

Yang gave a small laugh before succumbing to the Faunus's wishes, massaging the sensitive ears. "You'll do anything as long as I pet your ears." She said before continuing her assault on Blake's ears.

Weiss poked her head out of her covers and narrowed her eyes on the two, somehow storing the entire conversation deep within the core of her mind for unknown reasons.

* * *

As Weiss's fingers connected with Ruby's ears, the younger teen absolutely froze, her eyes ceased movement along with the tail.

"Ruby?" Weiss asked, waiting for the reacting that Blake had given Yang a while back.

The young heiress bit her lips slightly, suddenly taking in the pros and cons of this situation. The pros were very standard. For example, she could finally have a pet. Weiss had always dreamed of having a pet, but Geist was always looking out for any danger that could transpire among the Schnee estate and as the Schnee Dust Company owner, he had to protect his only successor. A puppy would be a "security risk" towards Weiss's safety and position as a heiress. Another great benefit was the squirt bottle she had bought for those hot summer days would have a new use in order to prevent Ruby from stealing any cookies from the "community" RWBY cookie jar.

Then the cons began to settle in, overcoming the pros. The major con was being a wolf. Even at such a young age, a "puppy" wolf stage at best, Ruby could do a large amount of damage. As a Faunus, real or genetically created, she could revert to her animal self at anytime. Weiss loved to read books about animals as a child but the one animal that she feared was the wolf, mostly due to the reading material at her age.

Upon reading a book about the life of a wolf, the young Schnee, 6 at the time, had witnessed page after page about wolf's hunting and ripping out their pray's throats for meals. To her knowledge at the time, all wolf's were evil.

A horrifying image of Ruby chomping down on Weiss throat instantly imprinted itself upon her clouded mind, adding to the fear and confusion that had already settled in.

"W-Weiss..." Ruby muttered out, her breath seemed rushed, as if she couldn't make any other words out.

"Yes Ruby?" Weiss asked, slowly moving her hands away from the ears. If she was correct about Ruby's wolf-mode, then this moment could be the end of her life.

Ruby's hands flew upward exactly as Blake's had all those days ago, firmly attaching Weiss pale hands to her ears. "Keep there no move." Ruby said, ignoring how grammatically incorrect her request was.

Weiss nodded her head and kept her hands on the teen's ears, slowly moving the tip of the ear in-between her thumb and index finger, causing small squeaks and pants from Ruby.

"You're just like a puppy." Weiss commented, scratching behind Ruby's right ear.

"Up shut, fingers good." Ruby replied, her tail wagging around at quick speeds. All signs of sadness were now replaced by happy chirps from the young redhead.

Weiss leaned forward a tad to continue her assault on the scythe wielders ears, her icy orbs locking with Ruby's own, which were looking off into the distance.

"Ruby?" Weiss asked.

Weiss got no response aside from Ruby's wagging tail. 'She must be in a trance...' The heiress's thought.

A thought came to Weiss's mind, a strange thought.

'She looks so cute as a wolf, exactly like a puppy. Wow... She is REALLY cute. Okay Weiss calm down... Wait... She can't hear me, and she seems to be in a trance... This is my lucky break!' Weiss thought quickly and looked behind her quickly, then to her sides for any cameras.

None, excellent.

Weiss inched her face forward, feeling Ruby's animalistic puffs of air from her throat upon her pale skin. Weiss's own face was burning a dark crimson. The young heiress allowed a small sly smile to expand across her face as she cupped Ruby's with her left hand, still massaging the ear with the right.

Weiss's lips were only inches away from Ruby's, all it would take is a swift motion forward and then what's done is done, no one would know, except Weiss's diary, well hidden within a secret compartment inside her pillow. Although uncomfortable, it worked. No one in the entire academy would even think about messing with her things, for everything the heiress owned was under the Schnee Dust Company's protection and not one person would be able to escape their wrath. However, she was determined to keep it hidden from any boys that were close to her such as Jaune and Ren... Well, they weren't THAT close to her. Weiss hadn't ever felt very close to any one before, much less a guy.

"Who needs boys anyway..."

Weiss tilted her head to the side and moved her far forward just a tad, only centimeters from those gorgeous lips...

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Orion shouted as he crashed through the door that closed off the room back first. His godly body slammed into one of the medical cabinets a few feet away, the metal bending into a mold of his form. "What the fuck?!" He shouted towards the door.

Weiss jumped back, putting as much distance as possible between herself and the adorable mess that was Ruby Rose.

"Dang it Orion!" Weiss shouted at the mangled God across the room. "You have the worst timing. Ever. Of all time!"

"WHERE IS SHE?!" A female, and very pissed off, voice yelled into the room. Whoever it was had their Aura levels dangerously high, the powerful magic bending the metal around the door.

Yang walked in the room. Well, walked is a minor way to describe what Weiss was witnessing. As Yang's feet made contact with the flooring, the marble tile would slowly bend into a perfect mold of her footprints. The brawlers weapons, Ember Celica, was activated and ready for combat, her blonde hair was now glowing an orange-ish shade that was radiating Aura off her being. Her once calm eyes were replaced with red balls of death and bloodlust, hell bend on killing anything and anyone in her path to reach her goal.

And Weiss was right across from her.

Yang turned to face Weiss with the look of pure anger engraved in stone upon her face. "YOU!" Yang shouted at the top of her lungs, suddenly sprinting towards Weiss, her right hand positioned into a fist.

Weiss ducked and activated a large white Glyph to block the oncoming attack. Yang had no time to dodge the new barrier and slammed her fist into it.

The shock wave that was emitted by Ember Celica sent Yang rocketing backwards into a shelf of bandages and pillows, all falling down upon the teen, burying her under the equipment.

"What the Hell Yang!" Weiss shouted to the buried teen, her anger causing her swear, which was very uncommon for her.

Yang poked her head out of the mound of pillows, her eyes still glowing with red. "I trusted you! You wouldn't let anything happen to her!" Yang retorted, struggling to escape the "death trap" that were the pillows.

"Yang, what in Orion's name are you talking about."

"Hey! Keep my name to a minimum missy!" Orion called out, attempting to get out of the wall. "How the hell did she make contact with me..." Orion mumbled under his breath.

"The nurse on the ground floor told us that she was hurt. YOU didn't protect her." Yang growled at her icy teammate.

"And that she was getting better." Blake corrected the brawler, walking into view from the door. "You ran before she finished talking, sweetheart." Blake added before walking over to her girlfriend. "You need to calm down or I won't talk to you for a week." The Faunus girl finished.

Yang's face paled and eyes immediately turned to their normal color, allowing Weiss to lower her Glyph defense. "Fine..." She mumbled.

"Yes, she is fine Yang." Weiss reassured the blonde. 'I would be better if you hadn't interrupted... Those lips were almost mine!' The young Schnee thought, her face turning a light crimson.

Orion pulled himself out of the rubble, giving an angry grunt as he stood up to full height, towering over all of the girls. "You are very strong my dear." Orion commented to Yang, who had yet to escape the trap.

"Thanks... Sorry for that mister..." She muttered, finally escaping the trap.

"Orion. The feeling is mutual." The God said calmly, looking towards Ruby. "I see that the young one is well?"

"Well yeah, she is. I guess... I don't know if that," Weiss said and gestured to the wolf girl behind her. "Counts as "well.""

Ruby blinked a few times quickly, shaking her head furiously before scanning the room slowly, taking in all her new surroundings, her ears perking up along with her tail. "Blake? Yang?"

Yang's face changed into an inhuman smile as she saw her little sister lock eyes with her. "RUBY!" Yang cried out, charging across the room and an incredible speed, nearly trampling Weiss in the process. The brawler crushed Ruby in a massive Ursa hug, she sound of a bone cracking filled Weiss's eardrums. "I missed you sooooooo much! You look like a puppy!"

"Need air. Hard breath. Help!" Ruby grunted out before Weiss ripped the bubbly brawler off of the petit teen.

"Don't hospitalize her again Yang. I don't think Dust can fix a broken spine." Weiss joked, laughing slightly.

All eyes flew directly to the young Schnee heiress, Yang's and Ruby's widened in surprise.

"W-what?"

"You... Made a joke... Are we dead, passed into a land of dreams and wonder?" Yang asked to no one in particular.

Weiss's face turned a dark shade of red, her left eye twitching. "How dare you! I always make jokes! I'm not some dunce like you Yang." Weiss giggled again. "See? Another joke."

Ruby gave a small giggle in return along with Blake who gave a small grin. Yang looked absolutely furious while Orion simply looked from girl to girl.

"Is this all you ever do?" The God asked the group. "I mean, don't you all have Huntress training to be working on at Beacon while Ruby is recovering Orion questioned.

"Well," Yang began. "Not a whole lot goes on around here unless we are training. We've already done out training for the day an-"

**_Zud zud zud zud... BOOM!_**

A colossal explosion shook the hospital room, sending Yang and Blake to the floor while Weiss gripped onto Ruby's arms.

"What was that?!" Yang shouted, slowly rising up as sirens blared to life outside of the room. The group of five minus Ruby rushed to the small glass window that exposed the outside world and saw a large cloud of black smoke rising from the docks.

"It's Saturn." Orion muttered under his breath. "He is trying to steal the Dust shipments..."

"Key word is trying."

Orion and the three 17 year old Huntress's in training turned to face Ruby, who had slowly rose out of her hospital bed, Crescent Rose in its compact form clenched in her left hand.

"I'm going to get some payback."


	5. Nothing can go wrong

**The Shadow of Fire**

Chapter 5: Nothing can go wrong

* * *

**"Weiss Schnee, it's quite the pleasure to meet you after all the trouble you caused my organization. My name is Saturn Laos, and your time is now at an end."**

* * *

It was suicide, crazy, insane, and above all else, Ruby Rose's idea.

The group of five had already left the hospital thanks to the aid of Orion, teleporting and then appearing just a few blocks away from ground zero of the explosion. Several emergency response teams had already secured the zone and were attempting to douse the raging inferno, a vain attempt at saving any Dust that was stored inside the warehouse.

The group kept to the ever growing crowd of on goers, taking in all of the surrounding areas, attempting to locate the scum that were the cause of this.

"This has to be an accident." Yang commented to the other four armed fighters. "Why would they detonate a bomb inside the warehouse if they wanted to steal the new supply of Dust shipments?"

"No Yang, it's not an accident. It's a diversion. They want all emergency and police units busy so they can steal the good stuff, Schnee quarry Dust. They're probably at the docks." Orion explained, crossing his arms over his trench coat. "We need a way to reach the shipments, and quickly."

Weiss felt something hard hit her in the back and quickly turned to face Ruby, who had been silent the entire time. The young teen's tail snaked around in the air, repeatedly connecting with Weiss's right thigh.

"Ruby? Do you see something girl?" Weiss teased, giving a cocky grin towards the young Faunus, not truly knowing what she just said.

"Weiss! Stop that!" Blake hissed at Weiss, her ears moving furiously around in her bow.

"Stop what? She's a dog; dogs notice smaller details then us." Weiss countered as if it made perfect sense.

Ruby glanced at Weiss face before looking towards a small hole in a metallic wire fence a few feet away. Without a word, the cloaked teen began approaching the forced entrance to the docks.

"Weiss." Blake said rather loudly, placing a firm hand on the heiress shoulder as she tried to follow Ruby. "You may thing being a racist is funny, but it's not to us. You have no idea what she's going through." Blake continued as Orion and Yang passed through the fence.

"What are you talking about?" Weiss asked in an angry tone, a look of confusion and anger adorned her pale face.

"You just called her a dog... and made fun of her Faunus typing." Blake countered to the heiress.  
"Think before you speak."

"Blake, I didn't say anything. I think I would know if I made fun of Ruby." Weiss argued back, crossing her arms over her chest in a defiant manner.

"Wow, just wow Weiss. You can be so stubborn at times. Think before you speak, racism isn't cool." Blake retorted, turning towards the fence and storming away from Weiss.

Weiss stood in shock, her mouth somewhat open. No one ever dared speak to her in that manner, much less a Faunus of all things.

'Wait... Did I say Faunus? Am I really a racist even when I don't know it...' The white haired teen though as she slowly walked towards the hole. 'Did I really say something mean to Ruby? She would know it was an accident, we're friends... I think.' She added to her own thought bubble. The teen frowned as she passed through the fence. At this rate, her plans to be more then friends with the redhead weren't going as planned.

The team regrouped behind a few containers of Dust, hiding in the shadows of the giant crates.

"What does security look like?" Weiss asked Yang, who just leaned out to get a look at the docks.

"Bunch of Fangs, teams of three patrolling around. They got hostages over by some boats at the end of the pier." Yang told the teen. "I don't know how we will get past them without a fight."

Ruby stood up tall, giving a small sigh in defeat. "I'll draw off the guards." She said quickly, reaching behind her back. The teen proceeded to un-clip her famous blood red cloak, her trademark symbol at Beacon. Ruby pressed it into Weiss's pale hands. "Take this; I made some modifications to it a while ago. It might come in handy." Ruby said before walking towards the end of their cover.

Weiss bolted towards Ruby and firmly grasped the younger teens arm. "No, I'm not letting you get hurt again."

"Weiss," Ruby said, her tail flickering wildly. "I'll be fine, since when do you care this much about my well being?"

"Since I realized that I... Just promise me after we are done here, we can have a private chat?"

Ruby's ears perked up slightly, her silver eyes shined brightly. "I promise." Ruby said quickly with a small smile as she pulled away from Weiss's hold, walking around the corner into plain sight as Weiss draped the newly gained cloak over her shoulder.

Ruby slowly walked up to one of the groups of three men patrolling around the groups area, putting on her best scared and worried face that she could.

"So I says to the guy, the White Fang isn't something to..." One of the guards trailed off as Ruby came it's his view, causing his allies to turn and face the new arrival.

"Misters?" Ruby asked in the most heartbreaking tone she could muster.

"Hey! What are you doing here brat?!" One of the guards nearly shouted, aiming his assault rifle at the young teens head.

Weiss could feel her heart beating at an incredible rate, almost bursting out of her chest. If this man pulled the trigger, there would be no hospital for the young girl to go to.

"Hey Cole, calm down. She's only a kid." One of the guards said calmly, kneeling down to Ruby's height. "Are you lost little girl?"

"Yes mister. My mommy said to ask anyone like me for help if I'm lost." Ruby said with that same tone, thinking about horrible things in her life to increase its effect on the men.

"Dan, we can't just let her walk around here, she could get hurt." One of the members told the one kneeling down.

"I know Tanner... Say my little wolf, can you take us to where you last saw your mother?" Dan asked Ruby gently.

Ruby nodded slowly. "Over this way I think." Ruby said and began walking towards the main entrance guarded by White Fang operative, with the three guards following the "lost" Faunus.

Weiss nodded towards the remaining trio in the group, slowly leading them past the guard's previous position and towards the boats docked at the end of the massive steel pier.

The quartet advanced along the shadows of the crates, creating a camouflage of darkness over the team as they proceeded towards the target vessels.

"We have to get this Dust out of these boats, this amount is worth millions!" Yang muttered quietly.

"This isn't right... Where are the Silencers?" Orion whispered to Weiss as they arrived at their destination.

"The what?" Yang whispered back as the group emerged from the shadows to board the largest of the ships with airships hovering quietly to the side of it, the command ship by the looks of it.

"Ah! That's far enough!" A chilly voice called out, the sound of a pistol cocking rang throughout Weiss's ears.

The quartet turned to face a group of White Fang; however this team wasn't a guard team.

Each wore a bright gold and diamond plaited chest piece of body armor along with matching additional armor attachments along with gauntlets and bracers. The tallest man before the rest held twin Desert Eagle high caliber pistols, clearly loaded with Black Dust rounds for maximum damage. The man behind him, between the two others, held a large battle axe, double bladed with a blazing Aura surrounding the edges of the massive Nora-like weapon. The remaining duo held massive black mini guns, massive steel containers on both of their backs to feed the ammunition into the deadly weapons, both displaying the White Fang emblem. The head of both mini guns had a depiction of a human skull, dried blood around the edges for added affect.

"Ms. Schnee... You are supposed to be dead along with your partners." The pistol wielder exclaimed, aiming right between her eyes.

"Leave the docks now White Fang. Or do I need to send you back to your boss in a casket?" Weiss suggested, ignoring the leaders words completely.

"How about this: We kill you just like Miss Rose, and we leave with the Dust. Sounds like a plan?"

Weiss gave a warm smile. "Check your information Fangs, she isn't dead yet."

"I'm sure we would know if she was stil-"

BOOM!

A massive explosion shook the ground as it did at the hospital, causing everyone to fall to the ground on impulse. Weiss glanced up to the direction of the explosion and saw yet another warehouse on fire; however this one was surrounded with White Fang, dead and alive. Massive fireballs of Dust and metal collided with the ground around the base of the building.

"Clearly you don't know anything." Weiss said with an evil grin, locking eyes with the Silencer leader. "Time for some pay back."

Weiss activated a Glyph directly under the Silencers, activating its power and sending the quartet flying into the air in separate directions. Weiss jumped up and pulled out Myrtenaster, changing the Dust cartage to "Ice" mode and activated yet another Glyph under herself, rocketing the heiress towards the leader's crash zone as her team followed suit into battle.

Weiss adjusted her trajectory as soon as the leader landed on the ground, going right for the kill shot. Weiss aimed her personal weapon for the leader's chest, planning on freezing him solid or at least his armor in order to get him taken out before the fight even started. However, right as she was within jabbing range, the leader aimed one of his pistols at Weiss. Before he could pull the trigger, Weiss's rapier jabbed into the side of the gun, freezing it solid.

The leader rolled out of the way of Weiss's attack and hopped up, holding his remaining desert eagle at her. He jammed his finger down on the trigger and began firing at the heiress.

Weiss acted on impulse, creating a massive Glyph in front of her body, sheltering her from the barrage of gunfire that crashed upon the semblance. The leader gave a growl of frustration and began racing around the heiress, attempting to find a weak point in her defenses. Weiss waved her fingers through the air, her fingertips glowing white as she created another Glyph in mid-air. As the leader would run around firing at random locations, Weiss's Glyphs would immediately maneuver themselves to the bullet just before it would make contact with her body, causing the ammunition to fall to the ground uselessly. Weiss gave a glance at the rest of the team, whipping a beat of sweat that had formed on her forehead. Weiss spotted Yang over by the end of the docks fighting one of the mini-gun solders.

Yang was having the time of her life by the looks of it. The eldest teen had both of her gauntlets activated and was firing barrage after barrage of Red and Yellow Dust projectiles at the gunner, who at this point was bleeding heavily from the damage he had taken in the short time. The mini gunner #1 pressed his thumb down on his weapons trigger and continued to rain down fire back at the teenage brawler. Yang "danced" around her little corner of the battlefield, countering a few bullets with Ember Celiac armor platting and with a few shots from them as well. Yang raced towards the gunner at incredible speeds, jumping and diving past each bullet just before it would have hit her. Yang closed the distance between herself and the gunner and brought her right arm back, bringing it forward in a savage punch.

The impact would have probably killed the turret user had he not raised the weapon to block the attack. Instead of hitting him, Yang's fist slammed into the black turret, breaking the metal and sending the front half of the mini gun flying into the depths of the ocean, rendering the weapon useless. The gunner wore a look of horror as the useless weapon dropped out of his hands, realizing that he was at Yang's mercy. The brawler brought her left fist back and with the momentum from the last punch, she slammed her fist into his chest, sending his unconscious body rocketing into one of the airships that was "parked" in mid air at the end of the dock. His body landed with a thud inside the aircraft and when he didn't stand back up, Yang bolted towards Blake.

Blake wasn't fairing as good as Yang had. The black haired teen had taken several hits to the body from gunner #2. The silent Faunus was hiding behind the cover of a Dust shipping crate while the last of the pair of gunners barraged the crate with gun fire, denting the metal into bullet hole shaped dots. With Yang's help, Weiss knew that the teen would be fine.

The last person Weiss looked at was Orion, who had actually decided to take part in the battle. The God was in heavy combat with the battle-axe wielding Silencer, who swung at Orion over and over with no signs of weakness or loss of strength. The Gods trench coat was in tatters, cuts marked his entire upper body. A strange golden substance dripped out of his wounds that resembled blood. Upon closer examination, it would be seen that Orion was actually wining the fight, despite the scene before Weiss's eyes. The axe user has a massive fist sized hole through his upper right leg, blood seeping out of it and dripping onto the cold stone pavement. How Orion managed to inflict that amount of damage upon the Silencer confused Weiss, but that was a thought for another time.

An angry growl drew the heiress attention back to her own attacker, who, at this point, had the most frustrated look that anyone could ever have. His eyes shot invisible bullets into Weiss's own orbs.

"Seems your plan isn't going too well." Weiss commented, flashing a cocky smirk in the leader's direction as the Silencer ceased his fire on the heiress.

"This isn't over Schnee, not by a long shot." He replied, reaching behind his back and pulled out a sliver and gray sphere. The soldier twisted the top of it and yanked off a small metallic ring off of the top.

Weiss's eyes widened as she focused in on the object.

A grenade.

Weiss knew her Glyphs weren't able to deflect something like that without it exploding, for the first time in the fight making her heart stop momentarily.

The leader threw the metallic sphere across the stone, running out of the way of the pre-explosion zone. A confident smirk adorned his face, remembering how during the new weapons testing the device managed to blow a 7 foot wide hole straight through a 10 foot wall of solid tempered steel and concrete. The only downside was its detonation time, but this would be complete overkill.

Weiss froze as the grenade stopped bouncing and rolled right in front of her, coming to a stop as it connected with her white and blue boots. She had the best combat training and Aura teachers in all of Vale, but the one combat situation that she was never taught in the Schnee household was how to deal with a grenade.

Weiss felt a strange feeling in the back of her mind as she recalled Ruby's words just before she left.

**_"Take this; I made some modifications to it a while ago. It might come in handy."_**

Weiss flung her right hand to Ruby's cloak and yanked it off of her outfit. The heiress had no idea of its combat usage or how to activate it but she had to try, running wouldn't solve anything at this point.

Weiss threw the cloak into the air on instinct, mimicking an action that she often saw Ruby doing when she was bored in their dorm room. 'If this doesn't work, then I don't know Ruby Rose at all.' The white haired girl thought quickly.

The red cloak dispersed into a cloud of bright red rose petals, floating quietly in the air as the leader disappeared into a maze of cargo crates. Suddenly, all of the petals began to glow bright red and flew directly at Weiss, enveloping the teen into a sphere of solid rose petals, cutting her off from the outside world.

A small click rang in Weiss's ears followed by three quick, consecutive beeps.

Then the grenade went off and Weiss's vision went dark.


	6. When you want something done right

**The Shadow of Fire**

****Chapter 6: When you want something done right...

* * *

**"You have failed me... And there is a cost for failure my friends..."**

* * *

Weiss couldn't see but she knew that she wasn't dead.

Weiss could hear the battle around her, the sounds of gunfire colliding against metal and stone combined with the shouting of White Fang soldiers made it evident enough that she was still walking on this planet.

The young Schnee hadn't a clue of how the battle was going or where she was on the field, but she did know how hard it was to fight while blind. The white haired teen slowly rose out of what seemed to be a massive crater, feeling around for a ledge or something to grasp to escape the enormous hole. Weiss ran her pale fingers across the nearest ledge that she could reach, slowly moving the tips as to not receive and wounds to her delicate and perfectly kept hands. A small sigh of relief escaped Weiss's mouth as she came into contact with a familiar slender and metallic object.

Myrtenaster.

Weiss firmly grasped her best weapon, slowly pulling it down to where she was currently standing. The heiress suddenly felt a strange object brush against her pale face, causing her to shutter in reaction and surprise. It had a seemingly soft feel to it, whatever it was, and oddly warm.

The young teen knelt down to the stone ground and began to feel around the rubble of the explosion, attempting to locate the elusive material. Whatever it is, it couldn't hurt to try and retrieve it. Finally Weiss could feel the soft cloth-like object, a bit of warmth coaxed the surface like butter on a hot pan. From what Weiss could deduce while blinded was that this was in fact Ruby's signature cloak, somehow fixed itself after the explosion. The teen draped the cloak around her back as Ruby would do, making her heart skip a beat for a second before realizing that she was in a war zone and needed to fix her eyesight.

The young Schnee reached behind her and grasped her personal purse that she kept metallically attacked to her lower back as a source of her emergency supply of Dust. If this didn't count as an emergency, then she didn't know what did.

The youngest Schnee dug through the silver bag blindly, bottles "tinking" off of each other inside the bag as her slender fingers sniffed out the correct vial. Weiss smiled slightly and plucked a warm vial out of the purse before tossing it aside. Worst comes to worse she could just get another. Weiss carefully opened the vial and raised it over her head and opened her eyelids slightly. With one quick flick of the wrist, the heiress poured the entirety of the bottle into both of her eyes, a small hissing noise emitting from her eye balls. Within seconds of contact, the teen was rewarded with her eyesight, while still a tad blurry was better than being blinded.

Weiss clipped Myrtenaster to her belt and began climbing upward from the hole that she had found herself in. Slipping a few times on the way up, the teen only ended up with a chipped nail and a few cuts and bruises.

Once Weiss reached the top of the hole she hoisted herself up onto the cold concrete of the docks and shifted her eyes around the area.

The first thing the teen noticed was the Silencers, or rather the lack of. All four of the fighters had disappeared from the battle all together, the only visible reference to them having been there was that random broken pieces of their armor and weapons. The second thing she noticed was that her teammates were in combat with the White Fang guards around the docks, easily tearing through the lines of Faunus fighters. Orion was calmly walking forward, ignoring the oncoming bursts of machine gun fire from the White Fang. The bullets seemed to deflect off of his body as they reached him, soaring across the battlefield back at the gunmen. Blake and Yang had to resort to more strategic combat, diving behind the random assortment of crates for cover before advancing.

Out of the corner of Weiss's eye she saw a large black covered figure approach her, holding a large scythe of some sort. The figure locked eyes with Weiss and shook his head is disapproval before vanishing into thin air.

'What...' Weiss thought before he noticed a White Fang member standing just to her left holding a grenade.

"Damn... Not another one of these..." Weiss mumbled under her breath before the man tossed it at her. Weiss knew she was in no condition to dodge this, the only place to run to was the crater and the grenade would just roll in after her.

In a flicker of red, Ruby appeared out of nowhere, racing towards Weiss at incredible speeds. Suddenly the younger teen jumped in the air, seeming to dive between Weiss and the grenade using White Fang member. Time slowed down as Ruby turned her head to face Weiss, sending a wink at the heiress before opening her jaw. The grenade connected with Ruby's jaw and was caught in between her new wolf-like teeth before time sped back up and Ruby was gone with the grenade. Almost two seconds after Ruby disappeared she re-appeared in a shower of rose petals. The younger girl winded her head back and flung it forwards, opening her mouth and letting the grenade fly back in its previous owners direction. The guards eyes widened just before the grenade exploded, sending the Faunus flying off into the distance.

Ruby ran towards Weiss and slid to a halt, kneeling down to the heiress. "Weiss! Are you okay? I saw the explosion and I thought you-"

"I'm fine." Weiss cut Ruby off, slowly standing up. "I'm fine. That was quite the explosion that you set off." Weiss replied, allowing a small smirk to appear on her usually stern face.

Ruby grinned wickedly, her tail ad ears perked up. "Yeah, I sort of found a few bomb and was like "oh I wonder what would happen if..." and well you know the rest."

Weiss, without any control of her body, reached over to Ruby and pet her head gently for a few seconds like a puppy. "Good job, now let's go finish this." Weiss told the younger teen, activating a duo of Glyphs next to them, aiming for the center of the battle.

"After you." Ruby said, gesturing to the Dust semblance.

Weiss rolled her eyes, suppressing a grin under her lips. The older teen walked over to her Glyph and activated it, soaring off into the distance with Ruby following suit.

Blake let out a harsh cry as an oncoming burst of an assault rifle slammed into her shoulder. The Faunus Huntress ducked under a crate of Schnee Dust, applying pressure to the wounds.

"Blake!" Yang roared out, her Aura activating. Her body glowed a fiery orange and red, fire glowing in her eyes and her rage took over her body. Yang raced towards Blake's attacker and slammed her fist into him, sending the White Fang member into the air, crashing into another group of guards. Once she knew that the guard was incapacitated from the fight, the brawler raced towards Blake.

"How bad is it?" Yang asked with a concerned tone, holding Blake's shoulder in her arms.

"I'll be fine; bullets went all the way through." Blake replied under a hiss of pain. "We need to end this now."

Yang was about to respond when the crate they were using for cover exploded, sending the two rolling across the stone pavement right into the eyesight of the White Fang.

"There they are!" One member shouted to his comrades. "Get the-"

The guard was cut off by a clash of steel and a flash of white. Weiss slammed into the guard with enough force to knock the breath out of him. The guard landed on the stone, slamming his head on the ground, effectively knocking him out. The rest of the guards raised their weapons at Weiss, ready to avenge their fallen brother. Ruby landed in front to Weiss just as they began firing their weapons. Ruby spun Crescent Rose in massive and quick circles, repelling the bullets before they could make contact with the duo. Weiss created a Glyph behind the duo. Stepping onto it and flying over Ruby. Weiss spun her Dust chamber to the "Fire" mode and held it at the guards on the ground. Weiss spun around in the air before raising Myrtenaster up above her head. The heiress then brought Myrtenaster down in a massive arch, sending all the energy created by the Dust chamber down at the guards, sending a massive arch of pure, solid Dust down onto the lines of troops, effectively cracking the pavement and putting the guards out of commission.

A group of around ten troops ran around the corner, the last of the White Fang fighters by the look of how fast they were running. Ruby ran forward and nodded to Weiss, silently telling each other what they needed to do. Weiss made a Glyph behind Ruby, allowing Ruby to place her scythe onto it aiming right for the panicking soldiers. Ruby disappeared in a shower of rose petals and Weiss gave a small grin. Weiss clench her hand into a fist and delivered a punch forward into the air, turning on the Glyph and sending Crescent Rose in the direction of the running guards. Crescent Rose tore through the Faunus's, sending a few to the ground and the rest into the air. Ruby appeared in front of the group, catching her scythe in one hand before spinning it wildly, cutting the soldiers over and over with the massive weapon. The youngest teen of team RWBY let out a roaring laughter that sounded akin to one of a psychopath on the loose. Ruby had the look of pure anger on her face, and if one were to look directly into her silver eyes, they wouldn't see the cuteness and warmth in them anymore, but a void of anger and haltered in a field of black fire.

In one swift motion Ruby slammed the edge of Crescent Rose into the pavement. As soon as the blade touched the stone, the mangled bodies of the White Fang landed on the ground.

A cheer came from Yang and Orion while Blake grinned slightly under the pain she was in. Weiss allowed a smile to cross her lips, realizing that they finally won.

"Good job Ruby!" Yang called out as the group walked over to Ruby who was standing completely still with her scythe still jammed into the ground. "That was awesome! Right Blake?" Asked her girlfriend.

Blake's face turned from one of pain and slight happiness to one of panic in a few seconds. The Faunus's ears perked up agitatedly, moving around furiously. Blake turned her head towards Weiss quickly; her eyes wide and full of worry.

She must have know what was about to happen.

Ruby lifted Crescent Rose out of the ground and slowly stalked towards one of the mangled bodies of the White Fang. Crescent Roses blade dragged across the ground, making a horrible sound akin to one of nails dragging across a chalkboard.

"Weiss! Stop her!" Blake yelled at Weiss, who seemed to be losing her composure.

Weiss raced forward towards Ruby, who was only a few yards away from the group. Ruby raised Crescent Rose up over one of the White Fang Faunus, holding the blade over his neck.

Weiss ran faster and raced to Ruby's side, gripping her arms tightly as Ruby attempted to lower her scythe down onto the guard's neck.

"Ruby! Stop!" Weiss shouted at her partner, the same look of worry that Blake had moments ago building inside of Weiss.

Ruby gave no response besides a low growl, akin to one of a wolf being deprived of its meal, the sound of anger. Ruby forced the massive scythe down a few centimeters more, almost to the Faunus's neck.

Weiss's grip tightened on Ruby's arms, pulling Ruby's arms up along with the scythe. "He's finished! We don't need to mutilate him!" Weiss pleaded. "Ruby! Stop this right now!"

Ruby turned her head to face Weiss and the heiress let out a quiet gasp. Ruby had the same look in her eyes as one of the wolfs that little Weiss had read when she was a kid, just before it was about to kill its prey.

"Ruby..." Weiss muttered softly, worry taking over her body. This... **_Thing_** wasn't Ruby anymore.

A loud cracking noise was heard from behind Ruby. Almost immediately after Ruby's eyes dilated, her ears drooped slightly along with her tail. Crescent Rose slipped out of her hands and landed harmlessly on the ground beside the White Fang member. Ruby's body slumped forward and landed in Weiss's arms, the teen's body not moving.

Orion stood where Ruby had been moments ago holding a broken wooden baseball bat, which the God proceeded to toss to his side. "Alright! I'm not carrying her back to Beacon if she knocked out. Weiss, have fun with that." Orion said while grinning, bending down and lifting Crescent Rose into his arms.

"Let's go girls."


	7. The New girl at Beacon

**The Shadow of Fire**

Chapter 7: The "New" girl at Beacon

* * *

**"No one can help you now... Not even your precious God, Orion."**

* * *

**The next day...**

_Tuesday, December 21st  
Beacon Team RWBY dorm room  
8:39 AM_

* * *

"Blake! What the hell happened back there?!" Weiss shouted at Blake, who had been quiet ever since they arrived back at Beacon. All throughout dinner, dessert, and breakfast the Faunus was completely quiet, a look of panic and worry adored her cat-like face. Weiss and Yang both noticed this, along with the quick glances that she would take towards their unconscious team leader who was sleeping on Weiss's bed.

Weiss knew deep down that Blake was just worried and scared just like everyone else. Anyone would if they had seen what Ruby was about to do. But if Weiss was being honest to herself, she felt angry at Blake. If Blake had known that Ruby would turn into... that thing, than she should have done something sooner to prevent it.

"Weiss! Don't yell at her!" Yang yelled back at the same volume, her eyes flickering red momentarily. Only she was allowed to yell at Blake, no one else, especially the ice princess.

Weiss ignored the loud voice that was Yang and took a quick glance at Orion, who had been staring outside the widow ever since everyone woke up.

"What happened to her Orion? You know everything."

Orion looked down at his hands and clenched them tightly into a fist, his whole body flickering. "I... Can't say Weiss... But you know the answer already." The God said simply, his voice in a weak tone, turning to Weiss. The God seemed to look much older than he was moments ago. "I will ask you the same question that I asked you before: what happens when you mix Dust?"

Weiss thought and gave her answer, coming to realization as she spoke. "Growth of limbs and... Personality change..."

Blake gave a harsh sigh. "She's a Faunus now Weiss. We are animals too, but also human. We have a powerful and smart body, brain and heart, but we have animalistic cravings as well. Once a Faunus is born, they go through stages of development. We start off wild but by the time we reach the age of six or seven, it ends. We mature. Ruby didn't have the seven years, so she had very little control." Blake responded, her voice becoming weak as she kept talking, never talking that much in one go before.  
"Also, princess, I didn't know Ruby wasn't strong enough to control it. Personally, I thought that she was going to be able to power over it... I guess I was wrong."

Weiss slouched down in her chair, slamming her forehead down on the table that was set up in the center of the room, knocking over a glass of milk that was set out for Ruby by Weiss.

Orion gave a harsh groan, grabbing at his chest as if he was dying. The three awake girl raced to his side, Yang keeping the God from falling.

"Are you okay Orion?" Yang asked, concern filling her voice.

Orion looked down at the teens surrounding him. "Girls... I'm not going to be able to stay here... My brothers and sisters are angry at me for my actions here... I..." Orion gave a harsh groan. "Have to go."

"What?" The trip of girl nearly shouted out, all eyes locking with the God.

"I can't stay, if I do..." The God shuddered. "It could alter time and space." Orion lied, recalling the last time this happened.

"But... What about Ruby, what if we need you again?" Weiss asked, speaking for the group.

"You will need to deal with it I suppose, once I am back home I can better support you all, but only a little and from a distance. If I were to come back... I could only be here momentarily."

Orion's body glowed a harsh white light, causing the teens to avert their eyes from the blinding light.

"Orion..." Weiss muttered out.

Weiss hated goodbyes.

"I'll do my best to keep you all safe... I promise." Orion spoke before the light vanished and the God was gone.

Yang rubbed her now watery eyes due to the intensity of the now extinguished light. "Well, that was a thing."

* * *

_Ruby's Mind  
8:49 AM_

* * *

The first thing Ruby felt was the pain in her neck.

All she could remember was that one minute she was swinging Crescent Rose around a group of White Fang and then next thing she knew, she was here, in this... Dark void of some sort.

Ruby pressed her right hand to her neck, a weak attempt to remove the pain that was present around the area. To her surprise, the injury seemed to become more distant. Ruby felt as if a ton of bricks had been lifted off her shoulder, which was pretty much the only good thing in this situation.

Ruby could see her body, her hands and legs were still there, along with the rest of her. The young teen looked at the darkness around her, spotting nothing notable that she could identify.

"Hello!" Ruby shouted out, a bit of panic overwhelming her rather calm and cheerful attitude.

'Am I dead?' The Faunus girl thought.

"Nope, just knocked out." A seemingly familiar voice spoke out in response, although nothing was present in the teen's surroundings.

"Orion?" Ruby asked into the darkness, taking a few steps forward. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. Listen kid, I can't stay long. Things in the land of the deities has gotten... a tad messed up with my interference on this planet. I don't think I can talk to you all ever again, but know this... I will do my best to protect you all, I promise." Orion explained to the younger teen. "I already explained this to your teammates and left already. So it seems that this is goodbye."

"But..." Ruby began but was cut off by the deity.

"It's fine Ruby, everything's fine. You will wake up soon. Just remember to look on your dresser when you wake up, Weiss and I got you a little something a while ago." Orion said and abruptly stopped talking for a few seconds. "Goodbye Ruby Rose. It was a... pleasure to have met you."

And with that, Orion's voice disappeared, leaving Ruby alone in the darkness.

* * *

_Saturn Laos's command center  
Main chamber  
8:52 AM_

* * *

Saturn sat comfortably in his throne, happily sipping a glass of red wine as he usually did every morning, as his mind pondered what he was going to do about this business with the leader of the White Fang. The contract placed on those four girls had been created by the leader of the Fangs, something about one of their operatives going rouge or something like that. Saturn didn't care much for the details unless things took a bad turn, just cared for the pay. He, like many modern business men, liked a constant flow of cash. And the White Fang had more than enough to go around.

Saturn had tried to contact the leader for a few... tweaks that he had wanted to be placed in the contract, but his calls weren't going through. Saturn simply didn't care much, once their deaths were confirmed by the Silencers, everything would work out and he would get his payment.

Nice and simple.

The massive doors to the crime lord's chambers flung open, the four Silencers limping in through to entry way up to Saturn's throne.

"You don't look very good my friends, what exactly happened?" Saturn asked in a bored tone, giving a small yawn before rubbing his one good eye.

The leader of the group stepped forward to explain his side of the story, followed by his comrades who gave their versions as well.

Saturn tightly closed his good eye once the last member finished his report, anger beginning to rise inside of him.

"So let me get this straight... You were all beaten by a group of teenagers, an old man, and stole not even a bottle of Dust... And to make matters worse, the girl I shot is still alive?" Saturn asked the group, crushing the glass in his hand, the shards disappearing the moment they left his touch into thin air as if they never existed.

"W-well I think managed to kill the Schnee girl sir. That grenade I threw-"

"Was our only prototype in stock you mindless animal! You ruined the operation and destroyed a vital piece of equipment! I gave not one of you permission to use such a device and for the life of me I can't even understand how you were able to get the weapon in the first place." Saturn began, his eye turning a dark, blood red color. "And you THINK the Schnee heiress is dead? We would know if she was! She has a damn tracker in her skull you idiots! The Schnee family would have known already and made an announcement by now!"

Saturn waved his hand across the air in a slapping gesture towards the four men.

Each Silencers head flung to the right, a large red hand mark appearing on the right side of their faces.

"You have failed me... And there is a cost for failure my friends..." Saturn spoke out coldly. "By the power invested in me, from this point on you are no longer members of the White Fang. I will give you twenty seconds to leave my chambers before I kill you all myself."

With that, the four members raced out of the room, dropping their remaining weapons on the floor in their panic, slamming the door behind them.

Saturn let out a sigh of frustration before pinching the bridge of his nose. This was beginning to become quite the challenge.

"Mr. Laos!" A very feminine voice call out to his right, drawing the crime lords attention.

"Yes?"

A young woman stepped out of the shadows; her long hazel hair flowed gently behind her as she walked, perfectly matching with her brown rabbit ears that adorned her head. She was around 5"9, her green eyes shined brightly in the dark room. Her attire made it very clear why she was here, her dark black jeans, a dark black button up shirt, and a flowing white trench coat similar to a certain crime lords known as Roman Torchwick.

"Hello, my name is Touko Mikasa. I am here to ask you about something involving our, the White Fang organization, contract with you." Touko asked.

Saturn reclined back in his throne. "Yes, go on."

"Our leader, Mr. Crish, suffered a minor dagger to the chest and will not be able to lead the White Fang at this time. With that said, I am now the temporary leader of the White Fang." The woman explained to the crime lord, walking around slowly, her high heels clicking as she walked. "I want to help you with the contract. I will handle our rouge Faunus and her girlfriend while you handle the other two, which have been causing you quite a lot of trouble. You can keep the entire payment as well."

"And why exactly do you want these girls dead? It's really draining my resources; I don't have a hundred troops just waiting around to go in to battle." Saturn demanded, waiting for a reason to keep the contract alive.

"Because of the Faunus, Blake."  
Touko gave a growl of anger, remembering the girl. "She was one of our best units, a deadly warrior that was used for only the most dangerous missions. That being said, she knows too much. We refined her skills and made her strong, only able to focus on her battles and not question orders. She knows what we've done and what we have planed. If she were to sit down and think about it, then she would have the knowledge to destroy us, and bring down your organization as well. If her pathetic friends know anything about it, they need to be killed." Touko took a deep breath and looked right at Saturn. "So will you keep our contract?"

Saturn grinned wickedly and clapped his hands together. "Got it. You know what? I feel that you and I are going to do great things Touko... You have yourself a deal."

* * *

_Ruby's mind  
9:21 AM_

* * *

Ruby paced around the darkness as she had been since Orion left. The young teen didn't know how much time had passed since then, let alone how long she had been passed out in general.

Ruby had done what she usually did when she was alone and bored, games by herself.

She played rock-paper-scissors and eye spy, which was the most difficult thing ever. And to top it all up, the teen managed to play hide and go seek by herself.

The teen felt like she was about to goes crazy until her animalistic traits kicked in, causing her to chase her tail around for what she thought to be about ten minutes. Although very random, it helped pass the time.

Luckily her animal side began to wear off, which allowed her to attempt at controlling this urge to act animalistic. She knew that controlling of this urge was a much needed thing and no matter how hard it was, it was important for her to have. She could possibly hurt someone she cared about if she acted like that.

The young teen paced around the darkness, every once in a while the urge would pop up in her brain, making her entire body shake furiously as she fought of the Faunus control over her body.

'I got to do this, I can't be weak.' The young pup thought.

After a few attempts of slowing down the urge to act wolf-like, the young teen won against one of the Faunus urges.

"Yeah! Ruby one, Faunus... Um... Never mind that Ruby, you just won!" Ruby shouted out, congratulating herself for her minor victory.

Suddenly, she began to feel a bit sick deep in the pit of her stomach, her eyesight slowly fogging up, which wasn't something that she was hoping for. Not at all.

"Ugh oh." Ruby managed to make out.

Blurry images of her friends, family, and people she knew and cared about in general flashed around her. Images of her in class, being made fun of because of her new looks, her friends leaving her behind to be bullied by Cardin and his team, her own family abandoning her. Tears broke out upon the teen's face, buried stress from the moment she looked in a mirror at the hospital emerging from the grave that she mentally stored it in.

"Ugh..." Ruby moaned out in pain as she collapsed on to the dark floor, gripping her stomach tightly. It suddenly became very hard to breathe, as if all the air in the surrounding area had been replaced with powdered Dust. Ruby clawed at her throat, her eyesight becoming very blurred as a wall of white light sped towards her body.

* * *

_Beacon Team RWBY dorm room  
9:45 AM_

* * *

"She should have been up by now." Yang commented, repeatedly slamming her yellow covered head on to her wooden desk out of frustration, not really caring if it hurt or not. Like Weiss had previously done, the desk shook as her head made contact, knocking over Dust bottles and pencils. Ruby had to wake up soon, she just had to.

"Trust me Yang, no one is worried as much as I am." Weiss replied back to the brawler, who stood at the head of her own bed, watching Ruby as she slept.

"You? Worried about Ruby?" Blake asked bluntly, flipping a page in her book, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Well... Ozpin will want to see her soon and she is our leader and..." Weiss rambled on excuse after excuse regarding her worry about caring for Ruby other than what both Blake and Yang clearly understood: Weiss liked Ruby.

It was painfully obvious to Blake and Yang, and it would have been for Ruby if she wasn't so... Hyper all the time. The way that Weiss would always want to be next to Ruby even when she was too stubborn to admit it out loud. To Blake and Yang it was only a matter of time before Weiss admitted her feelings.

"Or what if when she wakes up she tries to kill us?" Weiss asked, finishing her rant of excuses that neither Yang or Blake cared enough to hear its entirety.

That statement was enough to make the rouge Faunus fold back one of the rough pages of her hard cover book and close it, placing it down on the dinner table with a small thud. "That wouldn't happen Weiss, she knows us. She cares about us. She wouldn't even think about doing anything like that."

"You saw how she looked when I grabbed her arm back at the docks, she isn't in control of that wolf-like state Blake, all of Beacon could be at risk if she were to get her hands on her scythe in that rage." Weiss bluntly said, giving the duo of black and yellow a horrifying image implanted in their brains of a blood soaked hallway and one Ruby Rose drenched in the red substance, standing over a pile of bodies of students and professors, their own bodies at the top of the cluster.

"Let's just not think negative, whatever happens, happens. We can't control it by force." Blake replied as calm as she could without giving a whimper in her voice. The image truly scared her, especially after seeing what Ruby could do in that state of mind. She had very briefly considered the same reaction of Ruby when she would wake when they were having dinner the night before, but the older teen shook the idea off. It was too crazy to possibly happen, too un-Ruby-like. The usually cheerful girl wouldn't hurt a fly unless given a good enough reason.

Then from across the room, Ruby suddenly shook extremely violently, her eyes flung open as fast as a thought. The younger teen let out the most horrible sound from the back of her dry throat, gasping for air as she gripped the side of the bed, her eyes wildly darting around the room to determine her surroundings. Was she alive? Dead? Both at once? She didn't know. The leaders ears began fluttering just as fast as her eyes, adapting to the change in location and sound of voices filling the inner ear drums. Specifically, Weiss's voice.

"Ruby! You're okay! Calm down!" Weiss nearly cried out, racing to Ruby's right side of the bed, kneeling down to her level as she continued to panic.

Ruby's eyes locked with Weiss's and seemingly refused to focus on anything but those icy blue orbs, her breathing still shallow and dry but with a small but noticeable change in its pace.

Weiss wasn't worried about anything else at the moment besides the health of their team's leader, her leader. All Weiss knew was that Blake and Yang were freaking out as well, and the heiress could have sworn that Yang was on fire with worry. Ruby looked terrible, the exact opposite of what she looked like when she was passed out. All the signs of cheerfulness seemed to have evaporated from her being. Granted she seemed to be dying, it was still un-Ruby-like overall.

Weiss stroked Ruby's right hand gently, making a "Shhhh" sound with her lips, a careful minded attempt at keeping the younger teens mind at ease in order for her to calm down.

'What's happening with you Ruby?' The heiress thought as she shifted up onto the bed next to the panicking teen. Suddenly Ruby's eyesight was filled with Weiss's unusually concerned face, a mixture of confusion and fear filling her icy blue eyes.

"Are you okay Ruby?" Weiss asked slowly, tilting her head a bit to the side.

"Weiss!" Ruby cried out, clinging herself to the older girl, her silver eyes which were previously watery now letting her tears out like a faucet, the liquid running down the sides of her face as she buried her head in Weiss's shoulder.

Weiss sat in shock, half due to the fact that Ruby was hugging her and the other half due to the reaction of Ruby. Ruby, Weiss having known her for several months, had never displayed this type of emotion. Even when Weiss attempted to avoid her or scolded the younger teen, Ruby's cheerful attitude would prevail in the end. There was none of this right now, and from what Weiss could tell, things must be worse on the inside of Ruby.

Weiss simply pulled Ruby closer, a nice gesture at best but also a delayed one. Weiss hadn't gotten attached to many people in her life, and Faunus's were a group of people that the heiress wasn't attached to in anyway, besides Blake that is. Blake had earned her trust and friendship, from the Nevermore battle in the Emerald forest to the fight at the docks with Sun a few months ago, Blake had earned it as a friend, teammate, and as a Faunus.

Ruby was a different story.

Weiss and Ruby got off on the wrong foot to begin with, which only lead to the heiress despising Ruby at first. But after a few attempts at helping Weiss, usually ending in disaster and nearly killing the duo, Weiss began to like Ruby. Then, after Ruby's appointment as team leader, Weiss began to hate the teen again. And after Ruby's "helpful" suggestions during the practice in professor Ports room... Weiss had it with Ruby. Thus leading to a very long conversation with Port, who in one simple after class talk, finally got Weiss out of the icy exterior that she had close herself in, allowing her a new look on the leader of her team. From there on out the heiress began to grow accustom to the teen, likening her in fact... Possibly love.

But a Faunus Ruby? That would take all the effort that the Schnee heiress had in her entire being to not distance herself. Yes, while she has a massive crush on the petit teen, she still hadn't ever pictured this happening. This would take time.

But Weiss had all the time in the world.

As Weiss snapped out of her thoughts, she noticed the sobs from Ruby had seemingly quieted down in to soft hiccups, still burying her head in Weiss's shoulder, causing a faint blush to dance upon the heiress's cheeks.

"Ruby... You okay?"

A nod of Ruby's red and black head and a muffled hiccup was all the older teen got in response.

"Are you going to tell us what's got you all worked up?" Weiss asked, Yang and Blake sitting next to the duo.

Ruby's head slowly rose up from the white haired girls shoulder, her silver eyes currently red from the tears. The younger girls ears fluttered around as she slowly looked at each of the girls around her, eventually coming back to Weiss's face.

"You... Y-you all don't think I'm a monster?" Ruby asked softly, nearly a whisper. Her black and red ears flattened themselves on her mound of crimson hair.

Blake and Weiss both gave a collective gasp at the teen's words, causing those ears to perk up momentarily before drooping back down.

"Why would you think that?" The duo commented, leaving Yang in the background, her voice not heard.

"Well... I just don't like it when people will treat me different..." Ruby let out before hiccupping, her tail knocking against Weiss's brown and white head board to her bed, generating a "thud" like noise which strangle matched up with the beating of her heart.

"No! You're not different because of this; you're just more special... To all of us." Weiss said gently, allowing a warm smile to break free from her worried lips.

"Yes, everything is going to be fine. Even if people treat you different, it's their fault for being so un-accepting and rude; you're special, like Weiss said." Blake added on, nodding her head in agreement with the Schnee heiress.

"Well... I wouldn't say tha-" Yang began but was cut off by Weiss knocking the brawler off the bed on to the wooden floor.

"Yang! Be the supportive sister!" Blake exclaimed in Ruby defense, not wanting to knock Ruby's emotions and self confidence back down after building it up so much.

"Hey! I was just kidding, why yall over reacting so much?!" Yang shouted from the floor, scrambling around to get up.

Ruby gave a quiet giggle before breaking out into a fully fledged laugh.

"Now there's the Ruby we know!" Blake said smiling at the younger teen.

"Yeah! Hahaha that was pretty funn- WOOF!" Ruby began and let out a bark, covering her mouth with both hands, a shade of dark crimson blush adorned her face.

Blake's right eye twitched quickly before falling back down onto the floor with Yang, not expecting that in any way.

Weiss sat with her jaw slightly open, her own eyes twitching wildly.

"Did you just bark?" The shocked heiress asked, Yang suppressing a laugh from the floor at how ridiculous this situation was.

"Um..." Ruby managed to make out from behind her hands. "I... Sorry..."

"No... It's okay." Weiss said, giving a small, but warm smile. 'It's adorable.' She thought mentally.

"Well, this worked out... **_Purr_**-fectly." Yang said, grinning as if she had just won gold at a sparing tournament.

"Awe, damn it Yang!" The trio shouted out in unison.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the late chapter! I'll be taking a while off to write both of the new chapters for both of my stories, fix my relationship life up, and get some work done. Chapter 8 will be pretty long too, as will the next chapter of TOAFL. So… SEE YA! :3**

**REVIEWS HELP PUPPIES!**


	8. Christmas Eve and true love

**The Shadow of Fire**

Chapter 8: Christmas Eve and true love

* * *

**"What did you just do?! What is "Checkmate?!" you infernal girl!"**

* * *

_3 days later..._

Beacon Team RWBY Dorm Room  
7:30 AM  
December 24th, Christmas Eve

* * *

Ruby's adjustment to Beacon as a Faunus wasn't entirely pleasant, but as simple as it would have been for anyone else.

As she had suspected, things seemed good at the start. Her friends stayed by her side at all times, even taking the extra step to do something spectacular in the young Faunus's opinion.

As Ruby attempted to eat a bowl of cereal with her new sharpened teeth, which proved to be extremely difficult, the remaining trio of the team approached a large ominous door that was just to the left of Weiss's bed. The towering door was a few inches shorter than the entry ways oak door, but it ran chills down the trio's spines. This was the team RWBY community closet, or "the point of no return" as Headmaster Ozpin called it during his last mandatory monthly check of the dorm rooms. The door acted as a portal in Weiss's opinion, for if one was brave enough, or stupid enough, to enter the addition to the dorm room, they would find themselves trapped in a sea of books, Lein safes, bags, hangers, ammunition, and a vast variety of other goods. Once you were in, there was very little hope for escape, for time seemed to speed faster on the inside of the dark chamber.

After about twenty to thirty minutes of being inside, Ruby had begun to worry. The last time anyone entered it was Jaune, and he had gotten lost on the inside for twenty seven minutes. He came out traumatized, swearing up and down that the room was made of pure Aura, designed to expand if one was to enter. If the trio of the most powerful Huntresses in training had gotten stuck in the sea of items, there was nothing anyone could do.

Suddenly, the doors silver and gold handle spun with a viscous attitude, depositing its victims. Weiss exited first with a torn up night gown and a bruised lip. Blake had taken much of the damage and had damaged much of her combat attire, it would defiantly need sewing. And finally, Yang exited the dark nightmare that was the closet. Her hair was messed up completely and her arms looked like they had been sliced at by Crescent Rose.

"Ruby... Remember that box of pool toys from that contest we won a while back?" Yang asked, rubbing her arms quickly to ease the pain. "Well I think they came to life or something, because we got attacked by the rubber palm tree and the dolphin."

"Those coconuts..." Weiss mumbled under her breath, rubbing her aching head.

"Yes, so it is my suggestion to you that if you enter, stay away from the coupon boxes and tennis equipment, the toys have taken refuge there." Blake said with a straight face, regardless of how odd it sounded to hear from the most serious person in the group.

"So why did you go in again? Ozpin said we should leave it alone till the Aura makes it condense and become safer, remember?" Ruby reminded the team, who all nodded in agreement.

"Well, we found that job chart that Yang lost a few weeks ago. So we are going to make an escort list." Weiss said simply, pulling out a red marker from a silver box attached to the side of the white board chart.

"Because..."

"We are each going to help you stay safe with your new looks, bullies are in all of your classes and we want our leader safe and sound." Blake added on to Weiss's words.

"That's a good song..." Yang muttered under her breath. "So yeah, we are going to keep ya safe lil sis!"

The trio began dividing up the hours in the day for escorting times, taking time from their own classes to be able to protect Ruby. Their professors had agreed to this as well, stating that Ruby needs to be in her classes with at least one teammate. Their professors had decided due to the recent events that they could make up the homework that they would miss later. After all, the remaining team RWBY members were only helping their friend. The majority of students had gotten the week off for the holiday, and with that came an option for classes if anyone wanted to get a better grade or just to get some work done early. Ruby sure needed help in classes and with that in mind, the rest of the team decided to join in, taking a few classes a day with Ruby to make her safe and sound.

Weiss decided to handle the mornings with Professor Ports class and Professor Peaches class. Yang would handle Grimm anatomy with Mr. Stone and Doctor Firefalls health class. And finally, Blake would handle the last two classes of Ruby's day, weapons design with Ms. Remington and Dust usage with Doctor Dianthia.

The first two days had gone well for the young teen, each class actually enjoyable and easy to understand, probably due to the extra hearing in her head, her eyes helped see things better as well.

Lunch was never an issue, her friends on team JNPR still sat with her, Nora constantly tugging and petting Ruby's ears during meals. Cardin's gang attempted to bother the teen but one angry threat and a flash of her teeth scared team CRDL off. Oddly enough, Velvet of all people even showed up to show support, even sitting with the team at Weiss's request. Ruby knew what Weiss was doing. If the previous Faunus hating heiress wanted to make amends and be nice, she had to open up to the species.

It was this day though, Christmas Eve, the day before Santa would arrive for the youngest teen, when her life would take an interesting turn.

Weiss and Ruby sat in Professor Ports Grimm Studies class, Ruby actually paying attention to the story loving old man.

"Now! Can anyone tell me how the Nevermore managed to get that far down the train stations rail system, even after I had managed to chop off its right talon?" Port asked his confused group of students, his eyes scanning the room for any sign of life in his students.

Ruby raised her hand slowly; even Weiss seemed confused by the question at hand. Although she was probably thinking about Ruby and Weiss's talk they had planned. They were going to talk tonight at midnight for some reason, Weiss saying that it was very important to happen at that time during one of their walks through the park.

"Miss Rose?! Do you have an answer already?" Port shouted out, an amazed look adorned his face.

"Some Nevermore have the ability to shrink their size by pulling inward on their limbs. Since you cut its leg off, its ability became more powerful since it didn't need to use any effort to shrink the leg." Ruby said proudly, a smile plastering her face.

Port clapped his hands together slowly. "Excellent! You are a brilliant and creative young woman Miss Rose!" Port commented, praising the young teen. "Now class, we will be taking a final exam over what you have learned over the last few days, this test is going to be worth 45 percent of your grade. So pay close attention to the questions and the wording." Port explained as he passed out test to all the students but Weiss. "Miss Schnee, if you would like a copy for study material, I can give you one. You're not required to take the test at this time."

"No thank you, I will prefer to get the testing material done after the break, so I'm able to still help Ruby and not be too ahead." Weiss explained, despite how incorrect that statement was.

"As you wish my dear. Now! All pens prepared? Good, keep eyes on your own papers. Begin."

Ruby began the test and, oddly enough, found it to be one of the easiest tests that she had ever taken. She was nearly as fast as Weiss at understanding the questions, and she could already tell that she had gotten over a 79 percent correct on the test, a new record.

Weiss simply stared at Ruby as the young girl worked. Thanks to the ribbon that Orion had bought her, Ruby looked like a mini Blake, except much more adorable and cuter in Weiss's opinion.

Weiss felt her stomach rumble slightly as she watched Ruby, trying to recall the last time that she had anything eat.

"Ruby?" Weiss asked, a twitch of Ruby's ears under her bow told the heiress that Ruby was listening.

"What?" Ruby whispered back, not looking at the girl as she worked.

"I'm going to go get something to eat okay?" Weiss said, a small nod of Ruby head gave her the answer she was hoping for. "Okay, don't worry, you've got this."

Weiss stood up and walked over to Ports desk, explained her situation and walked out with Port, the man exclaiming that he needed to get his own lunch in early from the teachers' lounge.

As the duo left the room Ruby noticed a few whispers around her, the newly added ears picking up on the conversations.

"Hey, you heard about what happened to Ruby?" One student whispered to another.

"What? She got a bow?"

"No man, she's got those animal ears now."

"What? But... How?"

"She got shot or something, had to use a lot of Dust to fix her. Made her an animal or whatever."

Ruby placed her pen down on her desk, having heard enough of the talk already. The young girl turned to face the pair behind her. "It's pronounced Faunus, and I can hear everything you say. Now, unless you want me to skin you both alive and use your skin as a new cloak, I suggest you two shut up." Ruby hissed out. "People are trying to work."

The duo furiously nodded their heads, returning to their own papers. With a nod of approval, Ruby spun back around to finish her work.

Cardin stood up in the back off the class, having already finished his papers thanks to a chest sheet that his friends managed to steal. The well built Hunter walked down the steps to Ports desk, where he would deposit the papers and go on with his day. As the oldest boy stepped down one of the upper steps, he tipped over the ledge, falling down a few isles before falling into Ruby, somehow knocking off her bow.

"Oh! I... I'm so sorry Ruby!" Cardin said quickly, handing her the bow off the floor. "Sorry for what happened at lunch too, I feel... Bad about it."

Ruby smiled up at Cardin. "Not a problem Cardin, thanks. Happens to me all the time." Ruby said as she took the bow, placing it next to her before getting back to work.

Cardin proceeded down the steps, placing his paper on the massive oak desk and exiting the room through the back exit, one that very few students use, let alone know about.

Cardin gave a small whistle after he closed the door shut, three shadows approached him slowly, one clearly holding a box of some sort.

Cardin's teammates stepped up, all wearing their battle armor and combat attire.

"You got the wasps?" Cardin asked, grinning wickedly. This plan was coming together.

"Got it boss. You get some sap on her?" Sky replied back to his team's leader, and equally evil grin adorned his face.

"Done, a bit of the stuffs on her right hand." Cardin confirmed to his faithful teammate.

"Good. Let's do this boss."

* * *

_Back in Ports room..._

* * *

Ruby giggled slightly as she circled answer "C" for question number 49, just one more question to go and she would just have a few more classes to go before it was time to party.

Ruby glanced down to the last question in all bold, her eyes carefully reading each individual word a few times each.

Question Number 50:

What does a Nevermore's diet consist of if its home and breeding location is on Mt. Stoneworth in the Emerald forest?

A: Any species of animals in the area, includes humans and Faunus.

B: Deer and bears.

C: Deathstalker's and Beowulf's.

D: Trick question, no Nevermore lives in its breeding habitat.

Ruby twirled her red inked pen around her left hand with her fingers, biting her lip at the question. She knew that Grimm don't eat each other so "C" was out of the question. Answer "B" seemed a bit shady, not too specific for her liking and probably not Professor Ports as well. That left only "A" and "D" so if Ruby was to recall, the Nevermore's main diet was... Wait... What's that buzzing sound?

Ruby could have sworn that she was hearing a buzzing noise, while faint as it was, a buzzing was coming from somewhere nearby. Ruby scratched her right ear with her right hand and paused as she felt a strange liquid like substance connect with her face. Ruby pulled away from her right hand and stared at it.

Is that sap?

The buzzing noise seemed louder now, as if it was right above her.

Suddenly a small wasp landed on her right hand, about as large as her thumb, its eyes looking directly into Ruby's.

Uh oh.

Right after the first one landed, more began to follow suit. One became two, two became four, and on and on.

Ruby gulped as she took a direct look at their bodies. Their long, thin legs, dark black body color, small mosquito-like mouths... Rapier Wasps.

The other students must have not heard them buzzing around, no one knowing the danger that she was in.

Ruby tightly closed her eyes as one walked up to the center of her palm, its body shook violently before Ruby. The young teen knew what this meant, it was about to sting her, the poison from one of their stingers could kill a fully grown DeathStalker in a mere 20 minutes. For Ruby, it would be over before it started.

The bug froze suddenly before jabbing its stinger down into the girl's palm.

Or not.

Ruby blinked a few times as the bug slammed its form against her palm repeatedly, seemingly frustrated in a way. The wasp walked around in a circle before flying off into the hallway, the others following suit.

But where was its stinger?

Ruby cringed as she thought back to what just happened, those wasps didn't sting her… but why?

"What...?" Ruby mumbled to herself before turning her attention back to her test. The teen let out a deep breath as she realized just how close to death she just was. Sure, that is the downside to being a Hunter, but this made her heart race fast. What would the team do if she got stung? What would they do if they found out that this happened in the first place? The team was already being over dramatic about the whole Faunus thing, this would make it much worse. Ruby looked down at her paper and thought for a minute, blocking those thoughts out momentarily, marking answer "D" as her response before exiting the room.

What happens in the room, stays in the room.

Weiss reached forward for the door handle just as Ruby opened the door. Weiss held a small plate of strawberries and a few chocolate chip cookies. "Ruby? Did you already finish?" Weiss asked, in awe that Ruby had been able to finish the test without even asking for help even once.

Ruby smiled wide. "Yep! I checked my answers and all!" Ruby chirped proudly, sending a warm look to the heiress.

"Well, I was planning on giving you these later but..." Weiss mumbled, a small blush dotting her cheeks. "Here, you deserve it." Weiss said, holding out the plate of cookies and strawberries out to the Faunus.

Ruby's tail wagged excitedly, her eyes widening as if they were trying to smile. "REALLY!" Ruby exclaimed, jumping up and down with joy.

"Erm..." Weiss said slowly, raising an eyebrow at the younger girl. The one thing Weiss would never be able to understand was Ruby's love for strawberries and cookies.

Ruby slowly took hold of the plate and held it close to her chest. "Thanks Weiss!" Ruby said happily, sending a warm smile back at Weiss.

"No problem, it's the least I could do for all your hard work on getting your grades up." Weiss said simply, the most logical explanation for her actions if it weren't for the warm feeling in her heart. "Why don't we head to your next class? Then you can take a quick rest before I switch out with Yang. You've done quite a bit of work already." Weiss said with a smile, now that was something that you don't see every day.

"Yay!" Ruby shouted out, attracting the attention of a few passing Hunters down the hallway who simply smiled and continued walking once they saw it was just Ruby being Ruby.

* * *

_Later that day_

Beacon Team RWBY Dorm Room  
9:34PM

* * *

It was finally time, time for one of the most important things in everyone's life.

Christmas Eve dinner.

The entirety of team RWBY sat at a massive dinner table along with team JNPR inside RWBY's dorm room. While it took an incredibly long amount of time to set up, it was worth it in the end. The simple table was surrounded by chairs from multiple desks, covered in a velvet colored sheet which really brought out the color of the room.

Ruby raced around the kitchen, grabbing bowls and plates while depositing other bowls and plates in an effort to get everything perfect. Christmas was one of the only things that Ruby Rose took seriously, aside from cookies, weapons, and Weiss that is.

Weiss, Blake, even Yang had offered to do the transporting of food across the room so that the teen Faunus could catch her breath for once. Having so many finals in one day surely must have been difficult for the youngest girl on the team, but her stubborn attitude, that she surely must have picked up from Weiss, kept her from giving in to her teammates wishes.

"It looks great Ruby, masterpiece in my opinion." Ren complimented as Ruby put down the last bowl of gravy in the center of the long table.

"Yeah! You did perfect!" Nora yelled out after her teammate, already filling her plate with a multitude of turkey and gravy, drowning the said bird in the semi-hot liquid.

"Nora! Calm down! We want some too!" Yang shouted out, snatching the bowl of gravy away from the hammer wielding teen of team JNPR. "This isn't syrup!"

"Although her phrasing wasn't what I was going to use, I have to agree with Yang, you used way too much for your meal." Blake wisely agreed with Yang's position.

"Everyone! Please stop all the yelling!" Ruby exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air as she sat down next to Weiss. "We have like three more bowls of the stuff in the kitchen!"

"Alright everyone, please calm down. Ruby put great time into putting this together and I think we should all simply enjoy it." Jaune said, sending a warm smile to Ruby who returned the smile.

Weiss felt her heart plunge into her stomach seeing this. After all, one would be pretty angry if they saw their love interest being really nice to someone.

'No, don't think that Weiss. You're just nervous. Jaune likes Pyrrha, and Ruby likes girls... I think...' Weiss thought for a moment, worry beginning to build up inside her. Ruby had to like women... right?

Weiss snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of Nora spearing her fork into a piece of turkey, allowing her to begin to arrange her meal.

* * *

_West Wing  
11:30PM_

* * *

Weiss paced the outside balcony of the West Wing of Beacon. She knew what she was doing: waiting for Ruby to show. She had told the teen that she had to go somewhere and that she would meet her here, but that was an hour ago. Everyone else had fallen asleep already, what was stopping Ruby?

'She probably forgot...' Weiss thought, accepting fate. The heiress looked over the balcony at the Emerald Forest, the red eyes of the Grimm wandering around the woods shined bright in the dark night.

"Who forgot what?" Ruby asked, walking up to Weiss with a confused look on her face, her ears perked up on her red head.

"Oh nothing, wanna come look at the forest with me? It's very pretty at night." Weiss suggested, gesturing for Ruby to come over.

Ruby and Weiss stood at the edge looking onto the forest and other areas, not saying a single word. Weiss knew that if the awkwardness continued, that could end badly for her plan.

"Hey Ruby? Do you... Have a crush on anyone?" Weiss asked innocently.

"Well... Um... Yeah, I think it's a crush. That or I'm a really bad stalker." Ruby said and laughed a little under her breath.

"So who's the lucky guy?" Weiss asked, looking out into the forest.

"What? Oh, no. Not a guy." Ruby said slowly, rubbing the back of her neck nervously.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, her plan was coming together at last.

"Well, I'm sort of into... I like... I swing the other way." Ruby stuttered out, her ears flatting.

"So you're a lesbian then?" Weiss asked, direct confirmation was needed.

"Yes. I am."

"So who's the lucky girl then?"

"Um..." Ruby said with a slight blush. "She's someone I know, she's mean sometimes but I know she doesn't mean to be. Her eyes are really pretty, and when it snows it's when she looks the prettiest." Ruby said, a soft sigh of relief coming out afterwards. "Who's your lucky guy?"

"Ruby."

"Yes?" Ruby asked, looking at Weiss.

"I think I love you Ruby." Weiss said quickly, turning away from Ruby's stare. 'Oh no! I said it too quickly!'

"Huh, straight to the point I suppose."

Weiss slowly turned to Ruby, tears slightly blocking her eyesight. "I'm sorry Ruby, I just got a bit sad when you said you liked this girl and I really like you, I mean your perfect, but I just had to say it. I'm really sorry." Weiss made out, tightly closing her eyes

"Weiss... You're so silly. YOU'RE the girl I was talking about!" Ruby shouted out, laughing wildly afterwards.

"W-what?" Weiss stuttered out, looking at Ruby while brushing her tears away.

"Weiss... I love you too." Ruby said softly and pulled Weiss into a long kiss, wrapping her arms around Weiss. Ruby closed her eyes, her ears pointing straight up, her tail wagging wildly.

Weiss's mind was going into meltdown, blood rushing to her head to keep her from passing out. Finally! A kiss!

Ruby pulled away after a minute smiling at Weiss. "Merry Christmas Weiss." Ruby said softly.

"Merry Christmas Ruby." Weiss answered back, smiling at the younger teen.

The massive grandfather clock at the center of Beacon began to go off, alerting everyone that it was Christmas Day. Fireworks shot up into the night sky, images of Hunters battling Grimm adorned the lighted sky.

"Erm... Weiss?" Ruby asked slowly.

"Hrm?"

"Your nose is bleeding... A lot."

"I know Ruby. I know."

* * *

**Bonus!**

Cardin and his team stood with open jaws as the Rapier Wasps flew out of the room, away from their intended target.

"Where were their stingers?!" Cardin hissed.

"Boys?" A feminine voice asked from behind the team.

"Belladonna? What do you want?" Cardin asked the girl behind the team.

Blake tossed a bag to the floor, a pile of stingers falling out of it, causing all the members of CRDL to jump back in fear. Blake pulled Gambol Shroud from her back, holding the blade at the team.

"No one messes with Ruby." Blake hissed back at the team as Cardin let out a scream of fear.


End file.
